Blancpain Watches

Originally founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in Villeret, the brand was wound down during the quartz crisis and revived in 1983 by Jacques Piguet and Jean-Claude Biver — the latter going on to lead Hublot and TAG Heuer through their modern resurgences. The relaunched Blancpain operated under the famously combative slogan: "Since 1735, Blancpain has never made a quartz watch and never will."

The Fifty Fathoms, introduced in 1953 for the French combat-swimmer corps, is one of the original modern dive watches — predating the Submariner by months — and remains the brand's most recognized model. The Bathyscaphe is its modern slimmer companion. The Villeret line covers traditional round dress watches in the brand's haute-horlogerie register, including ultra-thin perpetual calendars and the eight-day Carrousel. The L-Evolution houses contemporary case shapes and complications.

Movement work is done entirely in-house at Le Brassus and Le Sentier (the latter shared with Frédéric Piguet, Blancpain's sister manufacturer within Swatch Group). Pricing starts around $11,000 for steel Bathyscaphe references and runs into haute-horlogerie territory.