Kind of ironic to release a watch built from recycled materials, but making it non-repairable. At least it's a move that catches the zeitgeist of 2023 accurately.
I was thinking about the environmental impact. Swatch does take them back though to recycle (again). Besides, even IF they would end up in a landfill as an example, the moonswatch weighed 29 grams including strap. So all 2 Million of them sold together are just about two truck loads (58tons) of trash, bio ceramic is 66% ceramic and on,y 1/3rd plastic. So technically we have about 19 tons of plastic waste. Compare that to 1 Million plastic water bottles being thrown away every single minute world wide. And it puts things into perspective. The fact that they also use ocean plastic and recycle fishing nets from the ocean to produce, means it probably ends up net negative for the oceans, since in most industrialized countries these watches are sold, trash is not dumped in the ocean anymore….. plus at least it doesn’t contain harmful batteries 😊
I'm not sure about the colours, but as a big fan of the Fifty Fathoms (1 of the first luxury watches I ever heard of) I'm glad Swatch are doing this. I bought a Squale 1521 50 Atmos because of the history of providing cases for Blancpain. I will never be able to afford a real Blancpain so I kind of like the idea of it, it looks quite a bit different to the real thing.
People can be so serious about these small contraptions we wear on out wrists. These seem like good fun and I’ll try an pick one one up if convenient for me. I hope you can get one to review for us.
Enjoy your watch videos, Sir! Thanks to your Rolex vids I was able to talk to the VP of my company for ten minutes about the different current Rolexes. Next time he walked by he actually asked which one he was wearing before so he could switch it up next time, networking over watches! 😂 I’ll have to remember these to bring up to him next time.
Not sure how many of the commenters actually are Blancpain owners, my wife and I are. And we both love this collab. It’s a fun little watch to enjoy that will last decades as many of the 2013 release Sistem51 watches still work just fine. Plus the price is about half of the cost of a NATO strap for my Bathyscaphe - so it puts it into perspective.
Ash, for once we have to agree to disagree, as the Sistems51 is a very low grade automatic movement. Non-servicable, one time use-only cheap plastic crap. YMMV... Appreciate your hard work though!
I wonder how brands like Omega and BlancPain feel about their watches being "homaged" in cheap plastic versions. But as the Swatch group is their boss, I guess they didn't had any say in it.
I don't think if I like it or not. I guess I'll see when they are plentiful available in the boutiques next year. (just like the MoonSwatch) I spent an hound a half in the scorching sun in Florence Italy in front of the Swatch Boutique, just to get a Mission to the Sun. (which was very appropriate for the occasion) Now you can walk in to any Swatch Boutique and choose from a plethora of colors.
Seiko made a very nice homage, called the ‘55 Fathoms’ - much nicer than a ‘bio-ceramic’ Swatch replica. Sorry, but I’m not sold on the Swatch/Omega Speedy - or this - I’d feel a bit foolish wearing one. Also you can buy a very, very nice quality stainless steel automatic dive watch for the same money - Squale, Seiko, Orient and Yema all spring to mind.
Honestly, my divers never see the beach.. too expensive for sand in my opinion. So this could be my next sand-watch like the swatch scuba back in the 90‘s
The Fifty Fathoms Chrono was my second choice after the PF….It’s now the new grail🙄🤷🤣. Will we ever learn to be fully satisfied with what we already have!?!? The official release could unfortunately be a venomous day fueled by greed and hostility. I’m more than happy to be 100% wrong🤞. Otherwise, good on you Swatch! It’s a wonderful idea to have fun with an icon and I don’t think it “cheapens” the brand.
I think they’ve smashed this. The glass, the lumed bezel, the water resistance, mechanical, the fume dial with applied indices… it’s great. The only thing is who in marketing decided against calling it the 51 fathoms? That would have been perfect.
A friend purchased the Omega/Swatch and experienced two persistent issues: the crown detached several times and one the pushers would keep sticking. According to the jeweller where it was purchased such issues are common. I wonder if these will suffer similar quality issues...
Not really my cup of tea but I'm sure there will be a market for it. For new watch people Seiko and Orient make a very fine mechanical watches for the same money. Cheers Ron
Yes, good thoughts, Ash. To bring a non known brand to the public, is a much better idea than to ruin a well known brand‘s reputation by spreading cheap plastic quartz copies. The price is a completely different topic to be discussed. 🕐🍸🍸
It’s not a copy, but quite a nice interpretation of what a swatch fifty fathoms looks like. It does create massive amounts of publicity and mindshare for Blancpain that is very helpful for the brand, plus unlike traditional marketing this actually also makes money as a side effect. So there are only winners. I say that as an owner of a ceramic Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe and I probably get one of these Scuba Fifty Fathoms too.
I’ve just ordered a Skmei ‘G-shock’ for a laugh - will let you know what it’s like when it arrives from China! The princely sum of £12 with shipping…….
The average person won’t know what Blancpain is. Flippers are going to be all over this. I personally think for us true watch enthusiasts, it’s a bit of disrespect any Tom Dick or Harry trying to pick one up when they have no real interest in horology. From Swatch group perspective it’s a massive commercial exercise so I understand why they would do it.
One of my first jobs was working in watch and jewelry retail and we sold Swatch. The hype had died down and the low quality was embarrassing. Nonetheless, despite the many contradictions, I think these new watches look great and are quite compelling; just don't expect me to sleep rough in the streets of a capital city in order to buy one.
I think that this is a huge positive to both Blancpain which is in my opinion woefully overlooked as not only the world oldest brand but also the watch company that not only beat Rolex to the diver but also passed the quality tests by the US Navy in 1958 while Rolex did not. THough $400 is a lot for a Swatch, Blancpain staying true to their commitment to mechanical movements and never making a quartz watch is endearing. It's certainly a much more approachable model for newcomers to the brand as well as enthusiasts.
If they was made with quartz movements then i think people would of gave them a miss,,but because theyve got a automatic movement they wont feel like a kids toy so much but the price is crazy, id rather a seiko five for half the money.
I like them, but the resellers will ruin the experience as they did with the Moonswatch. Let’s face it: if these weren’t marked with the name brands, you wouldn’t pay $20 for them at Walmart.
Will definitely be getting one when the crazy hype dies down and the scalpers have scalped all their victims on eBay. Big shame that yet again the real WIS are relegated to spectators by a marketing ploy 😬
Should be overpriced R diver, which was attracting all the Wrong attention and bought the original with the funds and never looked back to R Be interesting on the talks up of this and queues of flippers
