Introducing the New Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition and Flyback Chronograph

Blancpain in recent days has launched two new watches that are part of the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe collection, the Day Date Desert Edition and the Chronograph Flyback.

Despite being announced as the introduction of new colours to the collection of diving watches, both arrive more as a reissue of the brand and we explain below why.

The Day Date Desert Edition is a reissue of a model launched in 2018, the Day Date 70s, with a brown dial that darkens as you approach the bezel, an internal minute scale marked with Arabic numbers every 5 minutes, just below them rectangular hourly indexes, all in the style of the 70s, a black day and a date window at 3 o’clock, syringe hands and some red notes on the dial. Outside, a satin stainless steel case 43 mm in diameter and a brown unidirectional rotating ceramic bezel with Liquidmetal hour markers. Inside, an internal automatic movement with an impressive 120 hours of power reserve and 300 meters of water resistance. This new edition came with a beige canvas strip that matched the dial and is a limited edition of 500 pieces. And if you are wondering what this release brings different from the 2018 edition we mentioned above and if it went unnoticed by you, don’t worry because we had to look more than once to find something worth noting, then the main ones differences are first on the dial, with a dark brown colour, and second, instead of the real brown canvas bracelet, the 2018 edition comes with a brown leather (suede) bracelet and yes, basically these are the differences.

The Chronograph Flyback, unlike the Day Date Desert Edition, is not really a reissue, but the dial is and is not new to the brand as advertised, as this colour had already been introduced in July in the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe collection, with the launch of the Mokarran Limited Edition, which comes with the same colour scheme on the dial and maybe we are being very detailed. But let’s take a look at the watch. It comes with a tropical green, which we would call emerald green, which like the model we talked about above, gets darker as you approach the bezel, applied luminescence hours indexes, a window of the day at the 4 ½ o’clock position in the same colour as the dial, a subdial of seconds at 6 o’clock, a 30-minute counter and a 12-hour counter at 3 and 9 o’clock respectively and the same syringe hands that we also talked about above. Outside, a black satin ceramic case 43.6 mm in diameter and a green rotating bezel with Liquidmetal hour markers. Inside, an internal automatic movement with 50 hours of power reserve and 300 meters of water resistance. It comes with a black canvas strap and, unlike the July Mokarran Edition and today’s Day Date Desert Edition, this is not a limited edition.

Final considerations, the two watches are great launches to the brand with the two-tone smoke dials that are not very common to see in the market, but that fit perfectly as a whole. What we don’t like so much, the size of the case, 43 mm still seems too much for some wrists, even though the brand offers small alternatives in the collection and price, for a stainless steel case and with so many good alternatives on the market, the price it seems to be a challenge.

General Specifications:

Brand: Blancpain

Model: Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Editon; Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Flyback Chronograph

Reference: 5052 1146 E52A; 5200 0153 B52A/NABA

Dial: Sandy beige; tropical green

Indexes: Applied

Lume: Super-LumiNova

Case Material: Satin-brushed stainless steel; satin-brushed black ceramic

Case Dimensions: 43 mm diameter, 14.25 mm thickness; 43.60 mm diameter, 15.25 mm thickness

Crystal: Sapphire Glass

Case Back: Sapphire Glass

Caliber: 1315DD; F385

Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, day-date, diving bezel; hours, minutes, seconds, date, bezel, chronograph

Winding: Self-winding

Frequency: 4 Hz; 5 Hz

Jewels: 37

Power Reserve: 120 Hours; 50 Hours

Water Resistance: 300 Meters

Strap: Beige sail canvas strap; Black sail canvas strap/Nato strap

Price: CHF 11,900; CHF 16,000

Availability: Now

Limited Edition: 500 pieces; No