That seems to be the watch with the longest name so far. To make the story short: Blancpain is proud to be able to present an entirely blue ceramic case on its newest Fifty Fathom. Have a look an tell me what you think…
I asked my friends at Blancpain how they “painted” the ceramic used to manufacture the 43,6 mm case of the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Blancpain Ocean Commitment II to become so blue.
This is what they answered me: “Alexander, this coloring is achieved by adding pigments during the ceramic production process, together with a binding agent. Subsequently, to obtain this uniform, long-lasting hue throughout the entire case, two techniques were used. The first is a compaction process, where ceramic in powder form is pressed into a mold to obtain its shape. The second technique involves using an injection process to insert ceramic in the form of granules into the mold. This step enables the creation of a blueprint in the final shape. After this, the piece is placed in an oven on a low temperature in order to eliminate the bonding agent. When this is done, the latter is heated at a high temperature – a phase known as sintering – in order to give the ceramic its ultimate hardness. Lastly, the machining and finishing operations take place in order to provide the geometry and final look of each part. The compacting process was used for the case-middle, case-back, bezel and chapter-ring insert. The second technique involving the injection method was adopted for the crown and push-pieces. Suitable for small pieces, the latter is highly precise and complex to master.”
It looks like as up until now, it had not yielded satisfactory, sufficiently stable results for the blue color range.
I am already curious to see the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Blancpain Ocean Commitment III in maybe orange or yellow. Both colors would look gorgeous …
But for the time being let us concentrate on the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Blancpain Ocean Commitment II
Really amazing this long name of the watch 🙂
One thing that all chronographs do have and will have in common is the Blancpain F385 calibre
The new Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Blancpain Ocean Commitment II (BOCII) and the “old”, meanwhile sold out BOC I are equipped with the F385 calibre whose balance wheel oscillates at 36.000 A/h (= 5 Hz). Thats an ideal frequency for a chronograph as it enables each second to be divided into intervals of a tenth-of- a-second.
I think you will agree when I formulate: All one-eight-of-a-second (= 4 Hz / 28.800 A/h) or one-sixth-of-a-second-chronographs (= 3 Hz / 21.600 A/h) are more or less useless. They divide the time in units we simply don’t use. Have you ever in life heard on any event being timed in one-eight-of-a-second? At least I did not!
A column-wheel takes the commands for starting, stopping and zero-resseting this flyback chronograph. The flyback function enables immediate resetting of the chronograph to zero or restarting simply by pressing a pusher at 4 o’clock, in contrast to standard chronographs which require three steps to time successive events. The Blancpain calibre F385 has a variable-inertia balance with gold screws, ensuring increased robustness and more precise adjustment than the usual index device. A vertical clutch ensures faultless operation of the chronograph and eliminates any unexpected jerking of the central chronograph hand when the chronograph is engaged. Moreover, this solution allows the chronograph mechanism to operate freely without having to worry about any negative effect on the watch’s rate accuracy. The chronograph has a power reserve of 50 hours.
In addition, like all recent movements made by the Manufacture Blancpain, this calibre is also equipped with a silicon balance-spring. The latter and other taken measure ensure the calibre to be pretty antimagnetic.
Good news for real divers …
The Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Blancpain Ocean Commitment II incorporates all the technical characteristics of a mechanical diving watch. In particular, it is water-resistant to 300 m and its unidirectional bezel features gray inserts and hour-markers in Liquidmetal.
This 250-piece limited-edition watch is also distinguished by its oscillating weight engraved with the words “Ocean Commitment” linking it to Blancpain’s commitment to the exploration and preservation of the oceans, while the sapphire crystal case-back also reveals the watch’s sporty and sophisticated bridges.
The chronograph is limited to 250 pieces, and priced at 20.100 USD. Everyone who purchases the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Blancpain Ocean Commitment II is invited to become a member of the “Ocean Commitment Circle,” with the option to have 1,000 euros taken from the price of each watch and committed by Blancpain to the support of scientific expeditions and the preservation of the oceans.
>>> Please discover on page 2 live taken pictures of the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph Blancpain Ocean Commitment II by our team in New York during Watch Time New York 2016 that took place last weekend >>>
