Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42 mm Red Gold & Titanium

Quick specs Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42 mm Red Gold & Titanium
Price:
starting at € 18.150 | CHF 15’300 | $ 16,600 | approx. £ 16,000 (titanium)
starting at € 33.800 | CHF 28’500 | $ 30,900 | approx. £ 29,500 (red gold)
Size: 42.3 mm
Reference:
5010-12B30 (titanium, black)
5010-12B40 (titanium, blue)
5010-36B30 (gold, black)
5010-36B40 (gold, blue)

Blancpain presents two new cases for the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42 mm, one in red gold and one in titanium. Both are 42.3 millimeters and available with either a black or a blue dial. And the red gold has 3 strap options per color, the titanium has 4 strap options per color. Which all leads to 14 new references. We’ll help you with this puzzle.

Let’s look at the size. 42.3 millimeters is new for the Fifty Fathoms Automatique. Last year the brand started with this diameter with 4 limited editions. It started with 3 versions of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 1 called Series I, II and III. These were released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms model. And then there is a unique piece created for Only Watch 2023 that did not take place (yet): the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 1 Only Watch. All in stainless steel.

No water-tightness indicator

The two new cases are a follow-up of the limited series from last year, with the same size, and the same design. So, a traditional hours, minutes, seconds set-up with a date aperture between 4 and 5 o’clock. The seconds hand has a red tip, and all the hands and the markers and indexes on the dial and bezel have super-luminova.

Looking at the original MIL-SPEC 1 from 1957 the new models come close design-wise, but they miss the renewed water-tightness indicator. Which makes sense as the new models do more than 3 times Fifty Fathoms, the old (French) depth index that equals about 90 meters or 300 feet. The current models can do 300 meters or 990 feet which makes the water-tightness indicator unnecessary.

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42 mm Red Gold & Titanium have a power reserve of 120 hours

Inside the new Fifty Fathoms is the automatic Blancpain caliber 1315 with an anti-magnetic silicon balance spring and a power reserve of 120 hours. That’s a sufficient 5 days thanks to three series-coupled barrels. It has an 18K red gold oscillating weight with NAC coating and Haute Horlogerie decorations.

The titanium Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Automatique 42 mm is available with titanium bracelet (98S). Or a black or blue sail-canvas strap (B52B or O52B), black or blue NATO (NABA or NAOA), or black or blue tropic textured rubber strap (B64B or O64B). The red gold version is available with the same straps but is not available on a bracelet.