2010 sees an interesting release from Blancpain. Given the plethora of “vintage” or “re-release” models, I wasn’t at all surprised to see that Blancpain too had dug something out from their past to share with everyone. This is a model in the Fifty Fathoms collection called the “Tribute to Fifty Fathoms Watch.” It is modeled after one of the original Fifty Fathoms watches from the 1950s. If you want to know more about the history, the go here.

I don’t think that Blancpain has officially released anything regarding this watch yet. They often wait a long while to do so… which is frustrating. This is more or less the same Fifty Fathoms watch you know and love, but with a special “re-issue” dial. The original Fifty Fathoms watch has that interesting atomic label on there that actually meant to indicate that the watch was radiation free. Why? Well, luminant for a long time was radioactive. Radioactive waste is portrayed as glowing green and so does most luminant. Coincidence? Not exactly.When people started to realize that luminant was radioactive, they needed to find non harmful alternatives – and luminant is pretty darn important for dive watches. Thus, this timepiece back in the 1950’s proudly advertised right on the dial that it had “No Radiations.” The new version comes complete with the poor English. I wonder if it would have been so bad to change it simply to “No Radiation.” Apologies for not having a larger image for you to inspect the text for yourself.

The case is in steel, and I believe it is the exact same as on the current Fifty Fathoms watch model. Inside the piece is a Blancpain in-house made calibre 1315 automatic movement with 5 days of power reserve. The retro dial is more minimalist (aside from the no radiation stamp), but it has the same hands as the standard Fifty Fathoms. Is it enough to call it a while new model? I don’t think so. More like a different dial version of the Fifty Fathoms – so that is why it is called the “Tribute To Fifty Fathoms” (Fifty Fathoms) watch. I don’t think it is a limited edition, and price is about $10,000. Available now.

Blancpain watches on eBay here.

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