In the light of the “Fifty Fathoms No Rad” launch, Blancpain releases a full-length documentary film Fifty Fathoms – The history as told by the pioneers who created it.
Narrated by American Emmy Award-winning actor and author Peter Coyote, the film traces the journey of the creation and seven-decade evolution of the watch.
Fifty Fathoms was created in 1952 by a passionate driver Jean-Jacques Fiechter, the then Co-CEO of Blancpain. Fifty Fathoms yields historical significance as the most important development in the world of diving watches. Reminiscing the rich history of the Fifty Fathoms, the documentary features numerous anecdotes about the creation of the dive watch. It takes back to how Fiechter got inspired to create a watch when during one of his dive, he lost track of time and ran out of air, causing him to understand the importance of a reliable timekeeping instrument for the underwater world.
The documentary features first-hand interviews with Jean-Jacques Fiechter, its inventor; Robert “Bob” Maloubier, OBE, who oversaw the French Navy’s adoption of the Fifty Fathoms as its dive watch, and Marc A. Hayek, Blancpain’s President & CEO, who revived this iconic timepiece. The documentary also stars master-watchmaker from Blancpain’s Vintage department explaining the key patented inventions developed by Fiechter. Also, the film narrates the saga of how Fifty Fathoms was selected as the dive watch of the US Navy, which later gave birth to MIL-SPEC, among many others.
The documentary film can be best described as the unearthing of Blancpain’s archive. The film is the product of rigorous research, involving dozens of interviews with the key players throughout the history of this timepiece, and disinterring the declassified records from the US Navy testing program. The film also presents exclusive footage of Blanpain’s projects with National Geographic’s Pristine Seas expeditions and Laurent Ballesta’s Gombessa projects.
