Post by mamas on Feb 26, 2011 10:23:00 GMT -6
Background: The Journey
I started collecting watches 11 years ago after I graduated from university and bought a quartz omega seamaster bond as a present to myself. This watch was my daily wearer for around 5 years. At around this time I started to discover watch fora and realised that as an upcoming WIS, the more I read about watches and learnt about the movements that powered them, the more I realised that I just couldn’t continue wearing this quartz for the next 5 years. I then began a period of research and refinement, deciding which watches I liked and which watches I didn’t. As a manufacturer, Omega appealed to me, maybe because my father always wore an omega seamaster watch. Therefore I bought and sold several new Omegas, such as the white Omega Seamaster GMT, Speedmaster Day-Date, TT Aqua Terra and Speedmaster Professional. At this stage as I read more about the history of Omega watches, I realised that horologically Vintage Omega watches were far more interesting than their modern relatives so sold all my modern pieces and began a period of collecting vintage omega watches. Initially I bought dress watches then switched my focus onto sports watches. The fruits of this collection are presented on my website:
www.freewebs.com/omegauk
I soon began to tire of vintage omegas, I found that I had too many watches and hardly ever wore most of them. Furthermore, I never wore my rarest pieces out of the house as part of my everyday life for fear of damaging them and never wore them in my numerous water-based activities. At this stage I had closed to 70-80 watches and simply never wore most of them and gained no ownership enjoyment from such a large number. I decided to reduce my collection and focus on a smaller number of more modern pieces that I could wear everyday for all my activities and tried a number of other manufacturers such as Oris, Steinhart and Seiko before buying my first Rolex, a Seadweller. This was my daily wearer for several years until I traded some other watches for a GMT IIC on TZ-UK, which I wore non-stop for around a year or so. I think that for me the GMT IIC represents the apex of the Rolex collection, a superb versatile watch for every day wear. An opportunity arose to purchase a vintage Rolex 5512 Sub from a very close watch collector friend but soon traded this for a Daytona on TZ-UK as again found that it didn’t suit my lifestyle for daily wear. The Daytona is one of these pieces in which after the first few days of elation had passed, I found myself very much underwhelmed by it. It seemed dated and just wasn’t all that interesting after one had gotten over the so-called “rarity” factor. I considered a number of options, including trading it for more Rolex watches but realised that already owning 2 other Rolexes (SD and GMT IIC) getting more pieces would simply mean that they too would sit in the safe unworn for months on end. At this stage I decided to buy something a bit more special, a classic watch with a distinguished history behind it but was tough enough and water resistant that I could wear it every day for swimming, work, formal and causal. Although Rolex would fit the bill, I wanted something subtler, more refined and stealthy. Something that was a classic piece from a distinguished manufacturer but also not a Rolex, something that 99% of people would not notice or have heard of. After several months of research I focussed on the Blanc Pain Fifty Fathoms due to its classic design with a solid history behind it, an interesting movement that was rugged enough for every day wear resulting in this thread:
www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=157437&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=fifty+fathoms#p1611889
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms; The Watch
The watch is 45 mm in diameter and 15.5mm thick and water resistant to 300m, despite being called the fifty fathoms!. Although I was initially concerned whether I could carry off a 45mm diameter watch on my 6.75” wrist, I would say that this piece wears much smaller than this size due to the lugs wrapping around the wrist. It is strange in that I tried out an IWC big Pilot (47mm) and the watch looked absolutely ridiculous on my wrist as If I was wearing a wall clock. The watch feels well balanced on the wrist with the bracelet although felt a bit top heavy on the sail cloth strap which to me felt rather cheap and out of place on such a watch.
The dial.
The dial is a gloss dial with a centrally raised pie-pan portion and white gold surrounded lumed numbers that are symmetrically placed around the dial. The date is at the 4 o’clock position and is unobtrusive, it is there but doesn’t jump out at you. Although I cant really capture this in my photographs, the outer section of the dial has a brushed feeling to it with concentric circles running around the perimeter of the central portion of the dial. The dial is simple and yet has a very understated elegance. The lume is by far the most impressive lume on any watch I have handled, it puts both Rolex and Omega watches to shame, and is a brilliant white colour as opposed to the green / blue lume used in Rolex.
Bezel
The gently curved bezel was the first sapphire bezel to be used on a dive watch and is very much the focus of the watch. It has an almost vintage, warm feel to it. The bezel action is very precise, with almost no give and feels much better than my other Omega and Rolex watches. The numerals / markers are lumed and shine as brightly as the dial markers.
Case
The case as mentioned previously wears much smaller then its 45 mm size would suggest. The lugs are gently curved downwards wrapping around the wrist. The side of the case furthest away from the crown has Blancpain written across it although when wearing the piece it is not very noticeable and much more subtle than one would expect seeing the case. The lugs are 23mm in width and attach to the bracelet by means of a hexagonal screw. The caseback is simple with Blancpain and antimagnetic written at the top and bottom of the case with Fifty Fathoms written across the middle in italicised font. The watches are individually numbered, mine is number 1257. This is one of the reasons I bought this watch, it is not widespread or mass produced (Blancpain only produced around 10,000 watches a year) and it is unlikely that one would meet another wearer in the “wild”. The crown is protected by crown guards and is a screw down crown and is one of the first crowns that matches the feeling of sturdiness of the Rolex triple-lock crown which in my view is the gold standard by which I judge all crowns. The crown has “JB” engraved on the side and this is vertical when the crown is fully screwed in, an attention to detail which is the very ethos of the watch. Other manufacturers such as Rolex and Omega don’t have this level of detail, and their coronets / omega symbols are always at an angle when fully screwed in. The sapphire crystal has a gentle curve that is very reminiscent of acryllic and has a certain warmth to it. It adds a certain vintage character to the watch, going back to a by-gone less clinical era.
Movement
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms houses the 1315 automatic movement, which has 3 winding barrels and a 5-day power reserve. It is enclosed in a soft iron anti magnetic cage and is nicely decorated as this link shows:
blancpain.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-4/pi-4443763/ti-691128/s--1/
Bracelet
The bracelet is very well made and is brushed stainless steel with polished segments on the edges. The attention to detail is superb. It is a spring loaded butter fly clasp arrangement with a lock that fits over the clasp for security. The bracelet is substantial but very well made and secure, and wears incredibly comfortably, as though it is made out of cloth. There are two main weaknesses to the bracelet in my opinion. Sizing the bracelet is incredibly difficult, since it requires the simultaneous use of 2 screwdrivers at each edge of the bracelet. I gave up after a while since screws were fairly tight and would have preferred an easier sizing solution. Secondly it would have been nice if there was a means of micro-adjustment of the bracelet similar to GO or the Sub, or even an easy link like other Rolex pieces. This watch is offered with either a bracelet or a sailcloth strap that i thought felt very cheap and would suit a watch costing hundreds not thousands of pounds. Furthermore the sailcloth strap is very light and doesn’t balance the top heavy case of the watch.
Final Thoughts
This is a very well made watch, from a top-end swiss manufacturer based on a classic design from over 50 years ago that forms the DNA of most modern dive watches. It wears much smaller than its size and I would use the term “understated class” to describe it. Will it be my exit watch from this watch collecting madness? I hope so although time will tell. To me it is the complete watch that has taken me almost 10 years to reach the end of my journey and find.
I started collecting watches 11 years ago after I graduated from university and bought a quartz omega seamaster bond as a present to myself. This watch was my daily wearer for around 5 years. At around this time I started to discover watch fora and realised that as an upcoming WIS, the more I read about watches and learnt about the movements that powered them, the more I realised that I just couldn’t continue wearing this quartz for the next 5 years. I then began a period of research and refinement, deciding which watches I liked and which watches I didn’t. As a manufacturer, Omega appealed to me, maybe because my father always wore an omega seamaster watch. Therefore I bought and sold several new Omegas, such as the white Omega Seamaster GMT, Speedmaster Day-Date, TT Aqua Terra and Speedmaster Professional. At this stage as I read more about the history of Omega watches, I realised that horologically Vintage Omega watches were far more interesting than their modern relatives so sold all my modern pieces and began a period of collecting vintage omega watches. Initially I bought dress watches then switched my focus onto sports watches. The fruits of this collection are presented on my website:
www.freewebs.com/omegauk
I soon began to tire of vintage omegas, I found that I had too many watches and hardly ever wore most of them. Furthermore, I never wore my rarest pieces out of the house as part of my everyday life for fear of damaging them and never wore them in my numerous water-based activities. At this stage I had closed to 70-80 watches and simply never wore most of them and gained no ownership enjoyment from such a large number. I decided to reduce my collection and focus on a smaller number of more modern pieces that I could wear everyday for all my activities and tried a number of other manufacturers such as Oris, Steinhart and Seiko before buying my first Rolex, a Seadweller. This was my daily wearer for several years until I traded some other watches for a GMT IIC on TZ-UK, which I wore non-stop for around a year or so. I think that for me the GMT IIC represents the apex of the Rolex collection, a superb versatile watch for every day wear. An opportunity arose to purchase a vintage Rolex 5512 Sub from a very close watch collector friend but soon traded this for a Daytona on TZ-UK as again found that it didn’t suit my lifestyle for daily wear. The Daytona is one of these pieces in which after the first few days of elation had passed, I found myself very much underwhelmed by it. It seemed dated and just wasn’t all that interesting after one had gotten over the so-called “rarity” factor. I considered a number of options, including trading it for more Rolex watches but realised that already owning 2 other Rolexes (SD and GMT IIC) getting more pieces would simply mean that they too would sit in the safe unworn for months on end. At this stage I decided to buy something a bit more special, a classic watch with a distinguished history behind it but was tough enough and water resistant that I could wear it every day for swimming, work, formal and causal. Although Rolex would fit the bill, I wanted something subtler, more refined and stealthy. Something that was a classic piece from a distinguished manufacturer but also not a Rolex, something that 99% of people would not notice or have heard of. After several months of research I focussed on the Blanc Pain Fifty Fathoms due to its classic design with a solid history behind it, an interesting movement that was rugged enough for every day wear resulting in this thread:
www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=157437&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=fifty+fathoms#p1611889
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms; The Watch
The watch is 45 mm in diameter and 15.5mm thick and water resistant to 300m, despite being called the fifty fathoms!. Although I was initially concerned whether I could carry off a 45mm diameter watch on my 6.75” wrist, I would say that this piece wears much smaller than this size due to the lugs wrapping around the wrist. It is strange in that I tried out an IWC big Pilot (47mm) and the watch looked absolutely ridiculous on my wrist as If I was wearing a wall clock. The watch feels well balanced on the wrist with the bracelet although felt a bit top heavy on the sail cloth strap which to me felt rather cheap and out of place on such a watch.
The dial.
The dial is a gloss dial with a centrally raised pie-pan portion and white gold surrounded lumed numbers that are symmetrically placed around the dial. The date is at the 4 o’clock position and is unobtrusive, it is there but doesn’t jump out at you. Although I cant really capture this in my photographs, the outer section of the dial has a brushed feeling to it with concentric circles running around the perimeter of the central portion of the dial. The dial is simple and yet has a very understated elegance. The lume is by far the most impressive lume on any watch I have handled, it puts both Rolex and Omega watches to shame, and is a brilliant white colour as opposed to the green / blue lume used in Rolex.
Bezel
The gently curved bezel was the first sapphire bezel to be used on a dive watch and is very much the focus of the watch. It has an almost vintage, warm feel to it. The bezel action is very precise, with almost no give and feels much better than my other Omega and Rolex watches. The numerals / markers are lumed and shine as brightly as the dial markers.
Case
The case as mentioned previously wears much smaller then its 45 mm size would suggest. The lugs are gently curved downwards wrapping around the wrist. The side of the case furthest away from the crown has Blancpain written across it although when wearing the piece it is not very noticeable and much more subtle than one would expect seeing the case. The lugs are 23mm in width and attach to the bracelet by means of a hexagonal screw. The caseback is simple with Blancpain and antimagnetic written at the top and bottom of the case with Fifty Fathoms written across the middle in italicised font. The watches are individually numbered, mine is number 1257. This is one of the reasons I bought this watch, it is not widespread or mass produced (Blancpain only produced around 10,000 watches a year) and it is unlikely that one would meet another wearer in the “wild”. The crown is protected by crown guards and is a screw down crown and is one of the first crowns that matches the feeling of sturdiness of the Rolex triple-lock crown which in my view is the gold standard by which I judge all crowns. The crown has “JB” engraved on the side and this is vertical when the crown is fully screwed in, an attention to detail which is the very ethos of the watch. Other manufacturers such as Rolex and Omega don’t have this level of detail, and their coronets / omega symbols are always at an angle when fully screwed in. The sapphire crystal has a gentle curve that is very reminiscent of acryllic and has a certain warmth to it. It adds a certain vintage character to the watch, going back to a by-gone less clinical era.
Movement
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms houses the 1315 automatic movement, which has 3 winding barrels and a 5-day power reserve. It is enclosed in a soft iron anti magnetic cage and is nicely decorated as this link shows:
blancpain.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-4/pi-4443763/ti-691128/s--1/
Bracelet
The bracelet is very well made and is brushed stainless steel with polished segments on the edges. The attention to detail is superb. It is a spring loaded butter fly clasp arrangement with a lock that fits over the clasp for security. The bracelet is substantial but very well made and secure, and wears incredibly comfortably, as though it is made out of cloth. There are two main weaknesses to the bracelet in my opinion. Sizing the bracelet is incredibly difficult, since it requires the simultaneous use of 2 screwdrivers at each edge of the bracelet. I gave up after a while since screws were fairly tight and would have preferred an easier sizing solution. Secondly it would have been nice if there was a means of micro-adjustment of the bracelet similar to GO or the Sub, or even an easy link like other Rolex pieces. This watch is offered with either a bracelet or a sailcloth strap that i thought felt very cheap and would suit a watch costing hundreds not thousands of pounds. Furthermore the sailcloth strap is very light and doesn’t balance the top heavy case of the watch.
Final Thoughts
This is a very well made watch, from a top-end swiss manufacturer based on a classic design from over 50 years ago that forms the DNA of most modern dive watches. It wears much smaller than its size and I would use the term “understated class” to describe it. Will it be my exit watch from this watch collecting madness? I hope so although time will tell. To me it is the complete watch that has taken me almost 10 years to reach the end of my journey and find.