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Reviewing The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe In Sedna Gold

The Bathyscaphe’s styling is significantly different from earlier Fifty Fathoms models, and the movement is the very modern caliber 1315, a fast-beat, long-power-reserve engine specifically introduced by Blancpain in 2008 to provide the brand with a performance oriented in-house sports replica watch caliber. In 2015, Blancpain released a new, Sedna Gold version of the Bathyscaphe – and we just spent a Week On The Wrist with the most contemporary and one of the most quietly luxurious Fifty Fathoms models ever made.www.faussefr.com

The Fifty Fathoms replica watch has been around since 1953, and for its 60th anniversary in 2013, a thoroughly updated version was created: the Bathyscaphe, which takes its name from the undersea exploration vehicle invented by Jacques Piccard.

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I really wasn’t sure how to feel about the Bathyscaphe at first. In the context of the Fifty Fathoms line, it’s a big departure both in size and in style from the historical Fifty Fathoms timepieces. There are four basic models in current production – the Bathyscaphe; what I suppose you could call the “original” Fifty Fathoms; the highly technical X-Fathoms; and the 500 Fathoms GMT, which is water resistant to 1,000 meters and is being produced in a limited series of 500 replica watches.

The Bathyscaphe, on the other hand, is a 43 mm replica watch, takes a 23 mm strap, and is 13 mm thick. By the numbers, it’s right at the edge of what I’d consider a wristwatch you can wear on a day-to-day basis, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that, the use of Sedna gold for the case notwithstanding, it didn’t feel excessively large; it was actually immediately comfortable. This was partly thanks to the excellent nylon strap and beautifully made folding buckle; the latter is also in Sedna gold, and what in steel is a great piece of machinery becomes, in gold, almost opulent.

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Sedna gold is interesting stuff to look at every day. There have been some interesting experiments with gold alloys going on from different brands in recent years; sintered gold/ceramics from Hublot, Lange’s Honey Gold, and so on. Sedna gold was introduced for the first time in the Swatch Group by Omega, for the Constellation Sedna, in 2013, and it’s a combination of gold, copper, and palladium. Palladium is a platinum group metal and it does the same thing in Sedna gold that platinum does in Rolex’s Everose: prevents the characteristic tarnishing that can occur due to the presence of copper. Technically speaking, Sedna gold is an 18k rose gold and a very sensible choice for a dive replica watch, especially as contact with water can hasten the discoloration. Sedna, as readers who are astronomy buffs might know, is the name of a very distant minor or dwarf planet (about 31 times farther out than Neptune), but it’s also the name, in Inuit mythology, for a goddess of the sea, which is pretty appropriate for a dive replica watch.

The original style Fifty Fathoms is now a 45 mm replica watch – I miss very much having a smaller version of the FF in steel available; the 50th Anniversary model from 2003, with a sapphire bezel and a 40 mm case, was extraordinarily beautiful and very wearable and I have been wishing, with an increasing sense of futility, for it to return as a regular production model for many years.

I’m curious about the percentage of palladium and copper, because although the redness of copper is definitely there, Sedna gold seems a bit paler to me than conventional rose or red-gold alloys and depending on how the light’s reflected, it can range in color from a pale pink to almost white. It’s a beautiful effect, and it keeps the replica watch from seeming too overtly ostentatious; technical replica watches in precious metals can seem overdressed if you’re not careful, and the coloration of Sedna gold allows the Bathyscaphe to keep its technical character.

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The movement, as we’ve already mentioned, is the caliber 1315 and fittingly, for what is after all a technical replica watch, it’s dressed for work, not the opera. That said, it’s a well-finished piece of machinery. It also, by the way, turned in an excellent performance over the week I wore the replica watch. There was absolutely no detectable daily variation in rate whatsoever – I mean, none. I am reasonably sure that it gained about a half second after a week, but to be honest, to really evaluate the performance of this particular sample I’d have needed to put the replica watch on a timing machine. If Blancpain’s caliber 1315 is controlled at the factory so that this performance is consistent across its production, that’s a pretty laudable accomplishment (certainly, it makes the absence of COSC certification a non-issue).

The bezel has a ceramic insert – again, from a practicality standpoint this is an excellent choice, especially for salt water immersion. As you’d expect from what, its surprisingly discreet demeanor notwithstanding, is definitely a luxury dive replica watch, operating the bezel is both smooth and precise; there’s just enough resistance to give you tactile feedback as to bezel position, and marker positioning is spot on. Blancpain really nailed the haptics of bezel operation very well in the Bathyscaphe.

One of the things I’ve always wondered about with the Bathyscaphe is what impression you’d have of the dial proportions over time. Ever since the first time I’d seen it, I thought the dial seemed a little empty – as if too few elements were being dispersed over too large a space. This is really an aesthetic issue, not a practical one – the Bathyscaphe is legibility personified, as a matter of fact. The bezel also seemed a bit narrow at first sight as well. However, over the week I wore it, it started to seem more an advantage than not – the effect is actually rather restful and, in any case, Blancpain has a long history of effective use of negative space and I came to feel that the sparseness of the dial was a big part of what gave the replica watch its character.

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Overall, the Bathyscaphe Sedna Gold was a very pleasant surprise on a number of levels – aesthetics and wearability for one, and pretty phenomenal (if anecdotal) performance chronometrically as well; whoever gets one is going to have a very intelligently design wristwatch that will both serve its technical purpose well and look very unostentatiously handsome doing it. This is a replica watch that flew a bit under my radar when Blancpain introduced it and having it for A Week On The Wrist was a pleasure – and a chance to experience a design and technical success from Blancpain I might have otherwise missed.

See the entire Fifty Fathoms collection right here.

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe in Sedna Gold: case, 43 mm x 13.4 mm, 30 bar/300 meter water resistant. Movement, Blancpain in-house caliber 1315, 120-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph, running in 35 jewels; antimagnetic with silicon balance spring. Price as shown, $25,200; currently available.

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