As above, so below

As above, so below

Blancpain's latest Bathyscaphe celebrates a 'deep-earth' dive into Devil's Hole

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
As above, so below
The new Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback is dressed in a mesmerising green, inspired by cool hues of the underwater landscape. (Photos courtesy of Blancpain)

Since its relaunch in 2013, the sporty Bathyscaphe has come in many guises and different complications.

This year, Blancpain has made the collection more colourful than ever with bold faces in a blue, green or desert-coloured scheme.

Typically related to the ocean, blue is a classic colour for a diver's watch while sandy hues seem a mismatch.

However, one of the historic dives didn't take place in the ocean, but at Devil's Hole in Death Valley National Park, in the US.

The Devil's Hole is an underwater chasm that plunges into the bowels of the Earth at a depth of more than 120m before opening out into a gigantic underwater river.

In 1962, Ernest H. Brooks II descended Devil's Hole and explored the aquifer under Death Valley.

"It is unbelievable how hot the Sun blazes at 7 o'clock in the morning in infamous Death Valley. We could already feel the hot sand under our feet as we set off [to dive]", says Ernest H. Brooks II.

Devil's Hole is home to the only naturally occurring population of the endangered pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis, of which he took the first pictures.

Large earthquakes, as far away as in Asia, can lead to phenomenal tsunami in the Devil's Hole, whose water can slosh up the walls and sweep clean the shallow shelf, which negatively affects the pupfish's habitat.

The new Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback is dressed in a mesmerising green, inspired by cool hues of the underwater landscape. (Photos courtesy of Blancpain)

Ernest H. Brooks II has also dived beneath the polar icecaps and in almost every ocean on Earth, while sharing the experience through breathtaking underwater photographs, some of which are featured in Blancpain's Edition Fifty Fathoms books.

In remembrance of his legendary dive in Devil's Hole, the Swiss watchmaker has created Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition with the colour scheme inspired by Death Valley's landscape.

Based on a Blancpain diver's watch from the 1970s, the reinterpretation boasts a gradient-coloured sandy beige dial with a sunburst pattern, and windows showing the date and day of the week at 3 o'clock.

Punctuated with Arabic numerals, a chapter ring marks the five-minute intervals, in complementing the inner ring, while prominent rectangular Liquidmetal hour-markers further guarantee instant readability of the time.

The 43mm model is housed in a satin-brushed steel case, while the unidirectional rotating bezel features a brown ceramic insert. The sapphire crystal caseback reveals the in-house manufactured automatic movement.

Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition celebrates Ernest H. Brooks II's legendary dive in Devil's Hole, Death Valley.

Blancpain movements feature a silicon balance-spring that ensures regularity of the oscillation frequency as well as impermeability to magnetic fields.

Available in 500 pieces, the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date Desert Edition model is worn with a sandy-coloured sail canvas strap, matching the warm tones of the dial.

In contrast, the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe and Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback appeal in cooler colours.

A dial and bezel in blue combines with a 43mm case in gleaming Sedna Gold to give the new Bathyscaphe an elegant look.

The deep blue colour exalts its shimmering reflections and plays with light, thanks to the dial's sunburst finish. The unidirectional rotating bezel is also in Sedna Gold, while the ceramic insert features a Ceragold time scale and hour-markers.

Sedna Gold is a gold, copper and palladium alloy, named after an orbiting planetoid, described as one of the reddest in the solar system. Ceragold is a smooth and eye-pleasing mix of materials resulting from the encrustation of gold into ceramic.

The beauty of the satin-finished and snailed Sedna Gold oscillating weight and other parts of the self-winding movement are revealed through the sapphire crystal caseback.

Certain features, such as rectangular hour and minute hands, recall those of Bathyscaphe watches from the 1950s.

The Bathyscaphe was created a few years after Blancpain introduced the Fifty Fathoms, the first modern professional diver's watch, in 1953.

At that time, 50 fathoms was considered the maximum depth that a diver could achieve with the equipment available.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Fifty Fathoms, Blancpain created a contemporary version of the Bathyscaphe in 2013.

One member of this watch family, the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback has previously been interpreted in black, meteor grey and blue.

The new version is dressed in a mesmerising green, inspired by cool hues of the underwater landscape.

Considerable research and development was involved in finding the ideal shade, which challenged Blancpain's artisans in achieving the perfect colour and finish for the dial.

In two stages, the dial is polished to obtain a soft, smooth appearance. This is followed by a series of processes that give the surface a special texture, including a sunburst effect.

The highly-technical colouring process includes coating the dial with several nanometric layers of material. Transformed by the surface, rays of light reflect the desired green colour, with its subtle hues changing according to the angle of illumination, sometimes taking on metallic shades.

Colours, surfaces and textures also enhance the aesthetics of the self-winding chronograph movement, visible through a sapphire crystal caseback.

Paired with a Nato or sail canvas strap, the new Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback is presented in a 43.6mm satin-brushed black ceramic case, topped by a rotating bezel featuring a ceramic insert, also in a vivid green.

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