Look Who it Was Random video

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Speed Command Chronograph Luxury Watch Review

2,580 views · Published 21 October 2014 · 7:17 · Indexed 27 September 2026

Channel: The 1916 Company · 2014 · Howto & Style

Watch on YouTube

http://www.thewatchbox.com

The Fifty Fathoms is the heart and soul of Blancpain. More than any dress watch or haute horlogerie complication, the Fifty Fathoms is the embodiment of Blancpain's historical relevance and emotional appeal to collectors.

Blancpain's Fifty Fathoms Speed Command Chronograph preserves the iconic features of the modern Fifty Fathoms (2007-present) and elaborates with a flyback chronograph, exotic materials, and a motorsports theme.

The Fifty Fathoms Speed Command swaps the refined polish of the standard model for a Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) matte black. This coating is more durable than traditional PVD case coatings, and the example in thewatchbox.com's possession reads as a new watch. 

A dial composed of carbon fiber communicates in no uncertain terms the Speed Command's motor racing intent. Carbon fiber has revolutionized high performance cars and motorcycles over the last two decades, and the distinctive carbon composite weave sets this dial apart from the standard lacquer of garden variety FF models.

Additional features unique to this special edition include pervasive use of day-glow color accents (orange) and a rare appearance of the red variant of Superluminova luminescent material. The numerals of the dial are rendered in a font evocative of dashboard gauges in contemporary high performance car. As the sponsor of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo racing series, Blancpain had no lack of source material from which to draw inspiration.

As with all contemporary Fifty Fathoms, the sapphire bezel is lustrous, unique, and permits the bezel to be lumed; it's one of the few luxury dive models to be so equipped.

Inside the case sits a modern classic: the Frederic Piguet Cal F185, here employed under a display caseback. F. Piguet has a unique relationship with Blancpain, and the two companies have worked in close collaboration on movement design for thirty years. The flyback chronographs of the F. Piguet manufacture are trendsetters with the highest degree of technological refinement (column wheel/vertical clutch/integrated chronograph), and they count the Rolex Daytona's Cal. 4130 among major movements to have borrowed liberally from their engineering. 

The Cal F185 is finished in the finest tradition of the haut-de-gamme watch sector; Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin are customers of this movement for their Royal Oak Chronograph and Overseas Chronograph, respectively.

This Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Speed Command Chronograph is available from thewatchbox.com in condition indistinguishable from new with a complete factory set of papers, manuals, accessories, and the famous Fifty Fathoms Pelican travel case. Video and content by Tim Mosso.

More from this channel