Blancpain Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary Limited Edition Review

Ever since its release back in 1956, the Blancpain Bathyscaphe has lived in the shadow of its bigger, older brother, the Fifty Fathoms. In essence, it is the very capable but slightly overshadowed younger sibling of a legend. 

The Bathyscaphe was born at a time when the fledgling sport of “skin-diving” was in its infancy. As the sport rapidly grew and gained popularity, Blancpain and its then-CEO Jean-Jacques Fiechter spotted a hole in the market. As more and more recreational divers joined the fray, Fiechter noted that while everyone engaged in the sport would need a dive watch, not everyone would want a fully kitted out, mil-spec piece of gear like the Fifty Fathoms. The average recreational skin diver would likely want a capable but subdued wristwatch that they could take diving and then wear to dinner down at the local Howard Johnson’s, or whatever the Swiss equivalent of that is. 

And thus the Bathyscaphe was born. Fiechter had registered the name three years earlier, in 1953, just 10 days after seeing the exploits of Auguste and Jacques Piccard, whose deep-sea vessel, also called a bathyscaphe, had just set a new depth record in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Recognizing it as a fantastic name for a dive watch, he headed down to the Swiss Commercial Office and made it his own. The first 1956 model would retain the parts of the Fifty Fathoms that made it perfect for diving: ample water resistance, a rotating bezel, and a slimmed down 35mm case, a size that would be preferable for the more casual diver and more suitable for women of the day. 

Through the late 1950s and 1960s, Blancpain issued a number of Bathyscaphe variations, all built around the same core diving origins, but with evolving case shapes and dial configurations. The 1968 reference has since become the most celebrated of these vintage executions, and is considered by collectors to be the version that most perfectly balanced the model’s understated style. It’s the 1968 reference, not the original 1956 model, that Blancpain chose to resurrect for the 2026 70th-anniversary reissue. 

The current Bathyscaphe lineup has grown to feature watches of all shapes, sizes and colors. There are some complications that make perfect sense for a dive watch, like the chronograph, and others that are a bit more of a head-scratcher, like the moonphase. Regardless, they all share a common and unified design language that can be traced right back to the early days of the line, which makes the 70th anniversary edition's return to one specific, unaltered vintage reference make total sense. 

Reissuing a watch is a balancing act that involves trying to figure out which aspects of an old watch to keep as they originally were, and which aspects to update with more modern technology. As much as we tend to look back on the past with rose-colored glasses, many watchmaking technological advancements are simply superior to what was possible in the past.

Blancpain has succeeded handily in that regard with the 70th Anniversary Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe, updating the crystal, water resistance, and movement, and keeping everything else much as it originally was back in 1968. The result is a 37.4mm diameter stainless steel dive watch, smaller than anything else in Blancpain’s current collection, but robust enough to tackle any diving adventure you might toss it into. 

The dial is a meteor grey color with a sunburst finish that is a spot-on match for the original 1968 version. It is adorned with indices and baton hands for time-telling that are filled with vintage-colored Super-LumiNova. The upgrade to a sapphire crystal allows the water resistance on offer to be increased to a very respectable 300 meters, well beyond what would have been possible back in the 1960s. The dive-timing, 60-minute bezel has also been updated from its original hesalite material to a sturdy ceramic with lacquered numerals. 

The chosen movement perfectly aligns with the balancing act of new and old on display here. The Blancpain Manufacture Calibre 1150 is an automatic movement beating at a slower, 1960s-appropriate rate of 21,600 vph. This vintage beat rate is starkly contrasted by the movement’s modern silicon hairspring and whopping 100-hour power reserve. The original version’s solid caseback has been replaced by a sapphire display caseback to showcase the movement, including an open-worked 18K gold oscillating weight inspired by the design of the original Fifty Fathoms. 

Rounding out the package is an 18mm chocolate calf leather strap fitted with a pin buckle, a deliberate departure from the rubber straps found on many dive watches and a nod to the original’s identity as a watch just as comfortable in the ballroom as it was underwater. 

Limited to 300 pieces worldwide, the reissue carries a price of $18,300, a substantial premium over the standard production Bathyscaphe. The price is understandable for a piece so faithfully engineered around period-correct proportions rather than simply shrunken down from an existing modern piece. 

It would have been easy for Blancpain to phone this one in and slap a “1968” on a slightly tweaked version of the modern 43mm Bathyscaphe and call it a day. Instead, the brand took the more difficult route, custom engineering a case around the movement to hit that exact 37.4mm diameter, a size that will feel positively diminutive next to a vast majority of dive watches on the market today. 

In an era where “dive watch” has become synonymous with 44mm-plus cases bristling with lume and testosterone, the 70th Anniversary Bathyscaphe is a quiet reminder of what the model was actually built to be: understated, wearable, and a true “go anywhere, do anything” timepiece. Although this is just a limited edition of 300, it shows that a reset back to the bones of what made the Bathyscaphe good in the first place might just be the kickstart that the collection needs. Available now from Blancpain.