Blancpain Just Quietly Released the Ultimate Blue Dive Watch

You’ve seen plenty of blacked-out dive watches before, but how about a blued-out diver?

That’s the direction Blancpain has taken with its latest update to the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe dive watch line. Quietly appearing live on the brand’s website, unaccompanied by any media blasts or social media posts, is a new, and very, very blue version of Blancpain’s less-heralded Fifty Fathoms diver.

And if you like blue dive watches, then they simply don’t get any better than this. Or, at the very least, they don’t get any bluer.

Blancpain

Feeling blue

Blancpain’s new Fifty Fathoms is the reference 5000A 0640 O52A, AKA the “Blue Abyss,” and it’s so blue that if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that Blancpain had put Tobias Fünke in charge of its design.

For starters, the 43.6mm case is in a new shade of ceramic dubbed “Blue Abyss.” It’s inspired by the ocean and is meant to “evoke the mystery of the great depths, where light fades without ever vanishing completely.” I’m not sure about all that, but it certainly looks cool.

The case is paired with a matching blue ceramic bezel insert, which, for the first time ever on a Bathyscaphe, is fully lumed. The standard Fifty Fathoms has long boasted a fully lumed bezel, and I’m glad to see the feature finally make it to the Bathyscaphe, as well.

Blancpain

The Super-LumiNova used on the bezel here is also blue — with the exception of the luminescent pearl at the pip, which looks white in daylight and glows green in low light. The lume coating the bezel markings is a bright and brilliant shade of blue that keeps its azure appearance both day and night.

The same ultracool blue lume is used to fill in the hands and the white gold applied indices, which are set on a dark blue sunburst dial. Even the date disc visible through the window at 4:30 is colored blue to perfectly match the dial, with the date printed in white.

Blancpain

Lastly, we have the strap, which is made of Blancpain’s excellent rubber-backed sailcloth. It’s a shade of dark blue that we’ve seen Blancpain use in straps plenty of times before, but instead of the usual tonal stitching, the stitching is done in fluorescent blue to match the lume on the dial and bezel. It’s a very cohesive design, and if you love blue watches, this is about as good as it gets.

Through the sapphire display caseback, you get a view of the Blancpain Calibre 1315 automatic, which has a silicon balance spring and a total power reserve of 120 hours courtesy of three mainspring barrels. Critically, it also hacks, which is a feature missing from some other Fifty Fathoms divers. Best of all, the movement’s 18K gold rotor, which is typically blackened on other Fifty Fathoms models, has fittingly been given a blued finish here.

Blancpain

Pricing and availability

Blancpain has launched Blue Abyss has been launched as a boutique exclusive alongside its slightly less blue sibling, the ref. 5000 0640 O52A, which is identical except for the lume and the stitching on the strap, both of which are cream-colored rather than bright blue.

Both watches are priced the same at $17,400, and you can find a boutique that carries them by checking Blancpain’s website.

Blancpain

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Blue Abyss

Blancpain updates its Fifty Fathom Bathyscaphe with this “blued-out” version featuring a ceramic case, sunburst dial, bezel, lume and even 18K gold rotor all in blue.

• $17,400 at Blancpain

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