Blancpain X-Fathoms, the deepest mechanical profondimeter

 

Any category of watch has its «Grail» complication.
If the sounding complications are the Grail of the dressed-up watches, the chronograph is that of the sports watches, the diver’s Grail is undoubtedly the depth gauge.
 
 
Yet, throughout this decade of horological renewals, there have been few noticeable depth gauges.
Panerai, with its PAM193 and JlC with its Master Compressor Diving Pro Geographic, have presented 2 radically different Depth gauges, both of them frustrating.
Let’s talk quickly about the Panerai, which, with its electronic module brings nothing more than a Diving computer.
On the other hand, the Jaeger benefits from a reliable mechanical system!
But the lack of legibility caused by excessive complications, and most of all the lack of a maximum depth indicator make this watch a «desk diver», which is unfortunate, as JlC was almost there.
2008: Favre-Leubra, a mythical brand for the dive lovers, presents a mechanical Depth gauge, a direct descendant of the Bathy from the 70’s, the «Bathy V2»; Despite the interest level of the piece, the brand was shelved soon after; Hence, it will be impossible to write a relevant commentary about this stillborn watch.
2009: IWC presents its «Aquatimer Deep Two», descendant of the unreliable but beautiful «Deep One» from the 90’s.
The «Deep Two» drew quite a few lessons from the recent wanderings. The watch is a success aesthetically, and the complication gets down to the point; the 2824 is not awkward, as it makes room for the depth gauge.
But its big flaw is precisely the depth gauge ; if it is technically well designed (maximum depth and current depth), it is not the case aesthetically : the two little indicators are barely legible underwater,  and even less when one knows that the deeper you go, the less you can see the white of the indicators…
 
 
All these watches have something in common; they were all designed as watches with an added depth gauge.
All of them more or less took after a “Desk-diver”.
 
 
2011: Blancpain chooses to do the opposite with the X-Fathoms: to put a watch into a dive instrument.
Thus, rather than presenting a luxury watch fitted with a depth gauge, Blancpain proposes a luxury depth gauge fitted with a watch. Indeed, the object somewhat reminds us of some vintage instruments, such as Panerai’s.
The depth gauge is 55mm by 24mm and was designed as a stand-alone instrument, usable with decompression tables.
The dial is designed for maximum legibility, which makes sense for a diver, but for horological reasons the background is black and features 3 colors:
 
 
Luminova green: This color is the one that best renders luminosity.
 
Luminescent blue:  blue is the last of the basic colors to disappear underwater.
 
Fluorescent Orange:  it is the color that best reflects UV in deep water, after all the other conventional colors have faded. That’s the reason why it is used for depths superior to 15 meters.
 
 
The green is laid out akin to the basic «Fifty Fathoms», that is for the hours, minutes, seconds and on the gigantic bezel’s perimeter (by the way, Blancpain reiterates the sapphire bezel feat seen on the Fifty Fathoms presented in  2007)
 
The outer blue scale (orange between 2 and 6 meters for the final decompression stop) indicates the depths ranging from 0 to 15 meters.
The inner orange scale indicates depths between 0 and 90 meters.
 
The blue « spatula-shaped » hand indicates depths ranging from 0 to 15 meters, whereas the orange « pie server shaped» one indicates the actual depth ranging from 15 to 90 meters.
The red square indicator shows the maximum reached depth.
The retrograde hand at 10 o’clock is a 5 minute counter that times the decompression stops for base depths; it is actionable with the pusher at 11 o’clock. This function is especially useful for leisure diving, since the decompression stop’s length increases with the dive’s depth and duration.
 
The protected button at 8 o’clock resets the maximum reached depth indicator.
 
 
 
The watch is fitted with the 9918b caliber, which, besides its size (36mm by 13mm), uses the FF 120-hour power reserve set at the same frequency.
It is fitted into the enormous 55mm by 24mm titanium technical case.
 
 
With this watch, Blancpain signs a « Concept watch », as the piece is definitely not intended for James Bond loving « Desk divers »; but rather for Navy Seal loving «Root divers».
If you spend 6 months a year on the seaside and you love exploring the depths of the sea rather than running on the beach, this watch enables you to put the dive computer aside, provided you use decompression tables.
All in all, it is a “back to basics”. On top of that, it tells time!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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