This last blog post in 2022 is primarily meant to thank you, my readers, for your continuing support! But let me also include a quick wrap-up of the year, including my take on Blancpain’s 2022 novelties as well as my personal collection highlights of the year.
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About you and the blog
Because of you the blog is growing rapidly and I am very grateful for that. It’s exciting to welcome readers from more than 120 countries and it is a pleasure to have personal email exchange with some of you. Your feedback is always welcome and very rewarding, so please keep it coming.
You will have noticed that the blog is free of any advertising, and it will continue to be that way. Next year I plan to test a new look, with the appearance on mobile devices bring further optimized. As always, if you have feedback or suggestions, don’t hesitate to share those with me.
Again, thank you very much for your ongoing support!
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New timepieces in 2022
In terms of new releases 2022 has been a rather modest year, which is no surprise given the important 70th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms in 2023.
In my personal opinion two timepieces stood out, since they embody one key virtue of Blancpain, the attention to every detail.
With the Bathyscaphe Quantieme Complet 6654 in titanium we can see what difference tiny details make: with the month, day and moon phase discs being executed in the same color as the anthracite dial, the blend between the many indications and a pure monochromatic look is just perfect.
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The 36.2mm Air Command AC03 is not only a beautiful unisex timepiece, it also showcases Blancpain’s capability to make a smaller version in a way that its aesthetics don’t show exactly that. Every detail is a perfect fit, and this is also true for caliber F188B. Making this cal 1185 based movement look just as impressive as the F388B in the larger Air Command AC02 is an outstanding detail.
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Rounding my personal collection
It wasn’t planned, but this year happened to offer me the opportunity to build my collection of 40mm Leman timepieces quite substantially. Sometimes there’s a special dynamic building up, and so three very exciting timepieces joined my grail, the Flyback Split Seconds A’Toute Vitesse.
The Aqua Lung Grande Date 2850A, the Quantieme Complet 2863 and the rare GMT Reveil East Coast Jewelry 2041 represent the variety and the excellence of the Leman series in a most beautiful way. We know that this series is discontinued for a while now, and I think many of you join me in my wish for it to return at some point. But I think, if it ever happens, it most likely would not look the same way.
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A true highlight at the end of 2022
This of course was my visit to Blancpain in November, a very special day spent meeting various passionate representatives and enjoying a lot of inspiring conversations. The opportunity to briefly meet with Marc A. Hayek and take a quick photo of a very telling prototype on his wrist has been exceptional, his approval to share this photo with you was unexpected and I am very grateful for that.
What could be more promising for next year’s 70th anniversary than this first glance?
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Find the countdown to the 70th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms here on the Blancpain website and the blog post on the prototype is available here in the blog.
Hands-on reports about the above mentioned Bathyscaphe 5054 in titanium can be found here, about the Air Command AC03 here in the blog. The three Leman timepieces are also represented individually in the blog, find the GMT Reveil ECJ here, the Aqua Lung Grande Date here and the Quantieme Complet here.
This leaves me with wishing all of you and your loved ones a peaceful holiday season and all the best for 2023, which promises to be an exciting year for Blancpain and us from a horological perspective.
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We will meet here for a first 2023 blog essay right away in early January.
Cheers
Henrik