In 2012, the Year of the Dragon, Blancpain presented a Traditional Chinese Calendar watch. It featured not just the Chinese but also a Gregorian calendar date indication. There is a practical reason for including both calendars; the Gregorian calendar is used for universal (civil) purposes, and the lunisolar determines when it’s (Chinese) party time. Since […]
The end of the year is near, so it’s time for the MONOCHROME team to sit down and look back at everything that happened in 2022… And there was a lot, with so many new watches launched, in all categories and in all price ranges. Today, we kick off a series of buying guides representing […]
Downsizing is a word that comes with two faces. On one end you might feel corners are cut, you get less bang for your buck, and the experience is less fun. A good example is cars, where downsizing usually means less power, less performance and often less joy to drive. On the other end, specifically […]
It’s impossible to talk about the modern scuba diving watch and its evolution without talking about Blancpain. As one of the earliest creators of the purpose-built tool watch, they are responsible for multiple innovations in the field, including using an o-ring to seal the case back, and a pioneering crown seal system. Their name belongs […]
Blancpain‘s famous Fifty Fathoms dive watch surfaced in 1953 and became the benchmark for many modern dive watches. After being reinforced with magnetic shielding, the robust diver was adopted by French Navy combat swimmers. The 1956 Bathyscaphe, named after the submarine that fathomed the Marina Trench, was a smaller-sized dive watch with calendar indications designed […]
If you know your dive watch history, the name Fifty Fathoms No Rad (for no radiations) should be familiar. In fact, it should even ring the bell twice. One, when Blancpain was a supplier to the navies of numerous armed forces worldwide, with a military Fifty Fathoms delivered to the Bundeswehr, the iconic and rare “BUND […]
In addition to classic models, with a clearly-defined style and set of functionalities, watchmakers also love to mix genres. What about a perpetual calendar pilot’s watch? Or a sports skeleton timepiece? There’s another combination that feels, at first, a bit unusual but that, however, became more and more popular over the years, a watch combining […]
When it comes to luxury timepieces for women, Blancpain’s Villeret feminine collection has been a source of inspiration for the company’s annual Valentine’s Day release. For the past 21 years, Blancpain has released a timepiece in celebration of love. In 2019 it released a Villeret Women Quantième Phases de Lune watch, which we covered here, […]
The trend for watches with metal bracelet shows no sign of abating, specifically the watches with an integrated bracelet. But what if one of your flagship collections is essentially available on leather or rubber strap? A bracelet can radically transform the look and feel of a watch. If it is less versatile than a strap […]
The trend for watches with metal bracelets shows no sign of abating, specifically watches with an integrated bracelet. But what if one of your flagship collections is essentially available on only leather or rubber straps? A bracelet can radically transform the look and feel of a watch. Although it is less versatile than a strap […]