Swiss manufacture Blancpain celebrates a horological heritage of over two centuries

Conceived from the start as an object of grace, every Blancpain watch carries within it centuries of design excellence and technical expertise, interpreted as a moment of pure emotion.

The same intensity of passion spurred the founding of Blancpain early in the 18th century. Jehan-Jacques Blancpain was convinced that watchmaking was the next mechanical frontier and established his eponymous business in the Swiss canton of Jura in 1735, simultaneously creating the world's oldest watchmaking brand and sparking the region's legacy in the industry. The traditional skills and crafts with which we associate with haute horlogerie today were born here, encouraged by a visionary who understood the reciprocal relationship between the mechanical and the artistic.

Watchmaking in the early days took place in the first-floor workshop Jehan-Jacques had set up in his house. When his great-grandson Frédéric-Louis took over the family business in 1815, he modernised its approach and transformed the traditional craft workshop into an industrial enterprise capable of serial production. Innovations such as a cylinder escapement to replace the conventional crown-wheel mechanism and responding to industrialisation with a two-storey factory built by the River Suze to access hydropower technology ensured Blancpain remained ahead of its growing multitude of peers, becoming the district's most substantial endeavour in the 19th century.

The company fell out of family hands but retained its fierce spirit of invention through several ownership and management changeovers. It rode out numerous industry and global calamities, from the quartz crisis of the 1970s that brought Swiss mechanical watchmaking to its knees to a worldwide recession in the same decade. Swimming against the tide during this tumultuous period, it kept its head above water by dramatically changing the way it behaved.

Until the 1970s, many of the manufacture's movements had been made for other watchmakers, its calibres concealed in the timepieces of other brands. It then decided to retain exclusive possession of its expertise and committed itself to the production of grande complication wristwatches in the purest of traditional styles, defying the odds that predicted the end of the mechanical watch.

Its determination revived the Swiss industry, still under threat by the cheaper quartz watches coming out of the Far East, and rehabilitated the traditional complications that ascertained the practice as an art form. Epitomising this was the 1735 model, the world's most complicated timepiece when it was presented, featuring a minute repeater, tourbillon, perpetual date, moonphase calendar and flyback chronograph. A master watchmaker took an entire year to assemble this calibre.

It is a phenomenal story of perseverance and conviction in its craft and capabilities, moving forward with the times while still upholding the strict tenets of tradition Blancpain itself set for the industry all those decades ago. Those same values are visible today as the brand leverages on its creative inheritance to design the watches of tomorrow. Its legacy is not a weight around its neck but an inexhaustible source of ideas and inspiration.

Reports of overhauled distribution and new boutiques openings support this, but the harmonious symbiosis between tradition and innovation is perhaps best seen in Blancpain's current collections, which celebrate its effortless marriage of past and present.

Villeret is a long-time collection revived to commemorate the watchmaker's deeply-rooted origins. The 2018 Villeret Grande Date Jour Rétrograde hints at the vast expertise of the manufacture with a retrograde day of the week indication; while the large date and day displays change instantaneously at midnight, the retrograde day returns sharply all the way to Monday upon the end of every Sunday. The 40mm timepiece features hallmark design cues such as the double-stepped bezel and elegant hands and indices, and is available in a red gold case with silver opaline dial or stainless steel with a white dial.

Joining the retrograde day model is the red gold Villeret Tourbillon Volant Heure Sautante Minute Rétrograde. Blancpain was the first to equip a wristwatch with a flying tourbillon in 1989 and honours this triumph in conjunction with its debut in jumping hours and retrograde minutes. Within a traditional grand feu enamel dial, the flying tourbillon appears to float unaided while the jumping hours change dynamically in a window set within the minutes counter. The overall effect is one of exquisite elegance, the pared-down aesthetics allowing the sheer vitality of the movement and displays to take centre stage. A limited edition platinum version is also available, restricted to just 20 pieces.

Fifty Fathoms was first produced in 1953 at the request of the French navy's combat swimmers who required a reliable watch for underwater operations. It became the standard of reference among diving watches and a civilian version was launched in 1956, worn by the likes of conservationist and filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It was reinvented in 2007 for the modern wearer and this year, an entire collection was devoted to new iterations featuring its trademark unidirectional rotating bezel.

The Fifty Fathoms Grande Date brings the brand's signature instant-change large date complication to the series for the first time, displayed across two windows south of the dial. The 45mm titanium timepiece boasts the five-day autonomous Calibre 1315, which propels the date change instantly at midnight every day.

The defining codes of the Bathyscaphe make another appearance in the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Quantième Annuel, which works an annual calendar into the model for the first time. The collection's diving DNA is fully preserved within the 43mm steel case, where a meteor grey dial hosts the perpetual calendar complication. Driven by the in-house Calibre 6054.P, the day, date and month are displayed in a logical arrangement and the mechanism requires adjustment just once a year in February to account for the difference in month length.

Bathyscaphe, a self-propelled deep-sea submersible that inspired an eponymous model in 1956, was evoked in the new 43mm steel Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Day Date 70s. The 500-piece limited edition release features 1970s-style bold dial markings in a contemporary aesthetic with day and date indications at 3 o'clock on the graduated grey dial.

Collection of Blancpain's 2018 Novelties

For more info, visit www.blancpain.com