Inside the new Swatch x Blancpain affordable timepiece, Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms: US$400 each, they are water resistant down to 91 metres and linked to famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau
Swatch Group AG’s next low-priced luxury offering is a collaboration with the oldest watch brand in the world, Swiss watchmaker Blancpain. The plan is to sell a budget version of a timepiece linked to famous ocean explorer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau.
The Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms, a range of five watches whose colours and designs reflect each of the world’s oceans, have been available in selected Swatch stores globally from September 9. They cost US$400, a fraction of the tens of thousands of dollars that a Blancpain timepiece can retail for.
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Created 70 years ago and viewed as the first modern diver’s watch, Fifty Fathoms pieces were popular with military divers in France, Spain, Germany and the US. Famed oceanographer Cousteau selected the watch for his team of divers during the filming of his Oscar-winning film The Silent World, according to the company.
The new watches use Swatch’s Sistem51 mechanical movement, have luminescent hands and hour markers, and are inscribed with “No Radiations” in a nod to Blancpain’s historic timepieces.
Like the name suggests, the watches are waterproof to 50 fathoms – or 91 metres, for landlubbers.
- Imagine paying a fraction of the tens of thousands of dollars that a Blancpain timepiece can retail for – Swatch Group AG has you covered after its wild success with the Omega MoonSwatch last year
- The latest collaboration features 5 different Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms, honouring the original dive watches used by Jacques Cousteau during the filming of his Oscar-winning film The Silent World