It’s my utmost pleasure to provide you with a first quick overview on the 2019 Blancpain novelties to satisfy your curiosity. Following this short post, a series of reports dedicated to the individual pieces will be released in the next days, each with real life hands-on photos and the official Blancpain press releases.

We had to wait a little longer this year to find out what Blancpain has in the bag for us… and I have to say it was so worth the wait!

A celebration of heritage

Let’s start with a watch probably no one expected other than those few individuals involved in the project: the limited to 300 pieces 45mm Fifty Fathoms “Nageurs de combat”, a professional diving watch in military layout that celebrates the joint tradition of Blancpain and the French Navy combat divers. Its brushed steel case and the strong contrast between dial and the hands immediately indicate this is a serious toolwatch, with a very special and unique case back. Details will follow very soon in a separate post.

With this piece we already entered the world of strong heritage, and the next piece is referencing one of the most beautiful, rare and mysterious vintage icons… here is a new Blancpain Air Command that will allow 500 owners to an experience that is as close at gets to the vintage timepiece. An in depth report will follow later today.

Staying in the world of vintage inspiration, here is the limited to 500 pieces Fifty Fathoms Barakuda. Like with the Air Command, the luminous color code of this 40mm timepiece reflects on aged radium or tritium, and the white lacquer hands complete a very compelling look. Of course the Barakuda will get a separate post during this weekend.

Exciting additions to the collection

Remaining with the Fifty Fathoms, but moving back to the 45mm size, here’s the Fifty Fathoms 5015 in brushed titanium, already known to many of you since it was pre-launched late 2018. It’s a very beautiful alternative to the polished Fifty Fathoms Automatique.

I‘ll pause the Fifty Fathoms novelties for a moment (there is one more) and focus on the Villeret Extra-plate with manual winding, a wonderfully subtle timepiece, available in stainless steel or red gold, with a beautiful movement that also shows a power reserve indication on the back side.

Next we have a new Villeret GMT Date available in red gold or stainless steel. It’s another elegant and beautiful Blancpain watch that appeals to the frequently traveling gentleman or lady, since with 40mm in size it can easily be worn by women, especially on the Mille Mailles bracelet.

This brings us to the new ladies timepiece, the 33,2mm Villeret Women Date, available with or without a gem set bezel, in stainless steel or red gold, on strap or Mille Mailles bracelet, but always with a very nice oval date window that compliments the hands perfectly.

The Villeret timepieces will be covered in more detail within the next few days.

Now there is only one more watch left to show you, and I kept this one for last since it gave me a huge smile when I saw it… but for other reasons than the big smiles I already had with the other novelties: the striking combination of red gold and blue is something I‘ve been waiting for since many years, and here it is, the Fifty Fathoms 5015 in a brushed red gold case with a blue ceramic dial and blue sapphire bezel. I will show you more of this beauty in a few days.

Follow the blog for the detailed reports and many more photos

I hope you enjoyed this first glance and I hope you stick around for the detailed reports. If you have not yet done it, follow the blog and you will receive a notification on each separate post.

A heartfelt MERCI BEAUCOUP goes to Blancpain for having given me the opportunity to see the watches and take photos of them. It has been a huge honor and the support Blancpain provided for this blog being able to show you the novelties can’t be valued high enough!

Regarding the photos: the shooting took place in a conference room on a rainy day, so I had to rely on artificial light. I think the character of the timepieces was captured fairly well nonetheless, and I hope you enjoy the results shown in this first glance and the following reports.

Cheers

Henrik