The Basel report(5) – impressions from the Blancpain booth and some conclusions

Dear Blancpain Blog friends, here is the very last part of my report, this time I’ll share some impressions from the Blancpain booth.

Blancpain Booth

Well, the word booth does not really work in this case, it is more a multi level building, here are a few photos of the side and the back, so you get the idea 😉

Blancpain Booth

Blancpain Booth

Blancpain Booth

The open ground floor is very inviting, featuring showcases and two watchmaker workbenches, which are busy all day for questions and demonstrations of the fine crafts.

Blancpain Booth

Blancpain Booth

Blancpain Booth

Now, let’s take a very quick view inside…

Blancpain Booth

The inner part opens up to a Café, which is populated all day, offering food and drinks and a lot of interesting conversations.

Blancpain Booth

The top floor features a number of conference rooms for the presentations to visitors. I did not take any photos there other than those of the watches you have already seen.

All photos have been taken in the early morning to give you as much of a free view as possible. Later in the day you would have seen more people and less of the booth 🙂

Hope you enjoyed the quick tour. I will conclude this last part of my report with my personal take away from the visit and the Blancpain novelties:

Blancpain Novelties 2018

Apparently Blancpain had a very successful Baselworld, and their new offers are very strong. What I have noticed:

The Bathyscaphe is becoming more of a full line itself, with the new watches trying the interesting merger between a sports watch and some nice calendar complications. The limited Bathyscaphe Jour Date 70’s was a nice surprise, I was happy to see it in the metal and I absolutely love it.

The Villeret has seen three new models, all available in steel besides the rose gold versions. I applaud Blancpain that they chose to offer a perpetual calendar in steel again.

The FF Grande Date was overdue in my opinion, it’s nice to see it with a different dial layout (no 3 and 9) and in a brushed titanium case, which goes extremely well with the watch.

There has not been a new L’Evolution model, but also no resurrection of the Leman line… yet.

But what impressed me most, and what is haunting me since I saw it, is a timepiece that immediately triggered all the reasons why I love watches… the Tourbillon Heure Sautante Minute Rétrograde. For me this is the most beautiful timepiece I have seen for ages, and therefore I’ll close this report with a photo of this marvel:

Blancpain Tourbillon Heure Sautante Minute Rétrograde

A heartfelt „THANK YOU” goes to all representatives of Blancpain for their outstanding hospitality! I had the most enjoyable visit and time was running extremely fast.

Thanks to all readers for staying with me through five parts of the report. I hope it was worth the time you allocated to it 😉

Cheers
Henrik

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