The venerable watchmaking house of Blancpain often evokes associations with quiet and efficient ateliers in the Jura mountains of Switzerland, with highly skilled watchmakers working tirelessly at their art of polishing and perfecting every minuscule part in a watch movement.

Yet what also enabled Blancpain to reach such rarefied heights in mechanical watchmaking has been its pursuit of precision and robustness under exacting conditions, an objective shared with, and rigorously pursued by the military forces of the world.

It was in this context that one of the seminal military diving watches of all time, the Fifty Fathoms was born.