Celebrating a decade of conservation of marine lives
Blancpain Fifty Fathom 70th Anniversary Act 2, is the second series of the three acts celebrating the family’s anniversary. For this article, we shall refer to this second reference as Act 2, and its special name for this diving watch is Tech Gombessa, it is called so after the project that Blancpain has been involved in since its inception in 2013, a decade ago. And it seems only appropriate to dedicate this watch to the cause.
The Gombessa project was founded by Laurent Ballesta, a photographer and underwater biologist, who leads the project in studying the rare and near-extinct creatures that live deep in the ocean, like the Sphyrna Mokarran or Hammerhead Sharks that live around the Rangiroa Atoll, to understand the behaviour and the surrounding habitat of these majestic sharks and how to conserve them in conjunction with Tamataroa mission. As we know these activities take long and multiple dives to be done to study these creatures. In collaboration with Blancpain’s current President and CEO, Marc A. Hayek, who is also an avid scuba diver, together they developed a mechanical dive watch that extreme divers like them will appreciate, a deep and longer dive.
The development of Tech Gombessa started around 2018 and in 2019 they started testing the watch itself extensively. The watch in question is designed and developed to measure the three-hour-long tech dive. To enable the watch to achieve its goal, there are two crucial elements to focus on, the unidirectional rotating titanium bezel with notched edge and the robust construction of the case. First and foremost, the unidirectional rotating bezel is like no others you see on the conventional divers’ watches out there, Tech Gombessa’s has a scale up to three -hours long and is further supported with an indicator hand centrally located which makes a full turn in three hours. It is the first on the market and it is of course patented.
The mechanism itself has a couple of developments as well, a wheel that makes a full turn on the dial in three hours, which in itself is unusual and a first, and secondly, the watch has to be constructed robustly and reliably to able to withstand the extreme condition in the deep sea for that long period and also to house the automatic Calibre 13P8 in combination with all the developments from the original 1953 modern dive watch.
Let’s observe the outside of the watch, not just for its aesthetics but also its features and functions. The unidirectional rotating bezel has a black ceramic inlay with applique scale makers and is coated with green emission white luminescent, and a curved spherical crystal overlay to guarantee near complete readability sans distortion, and they are slanted towards the dial which is in absolute black. The black dial is decorated with block orange applique luminescent hours markers which have blue emission. The hours and minutes seconds are in matte black coated with orange with blue emission luminescent. In contrast, the seconds hand and the three-hour diving time indicator are coated with green emission white luminescent, to contrast themselves from each other and to avoid confusion when reading them in the dark and deep.
These latest developments and all the bells and whistles of a professional modern diver watch are housed in the purest Grande 5 titanium finished in a matted 47mm case. It comes with an extendable rubber strap. The sharp design and its talents have made Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 2 an ultimate diving watch. Its ruggedly handsome good looks is irresistible. Blancpain has once again set the standard for the new era of mechanical diving watch.
The watch takes the professional diver watch to the next level, for those who do extended-time diving. Even though if you are not a diver, it will still look rather amazing and sporty with a degree of elegance on dry land. Either way or whichever one you may be, it’s a must in your watch collection.
