I think you’re right about the hype dying down. BUT I will say I have learned much more about the 50 Fathoms than I’ve ever known before since this release. So maybe a successful campaign ?

I have been binge watching your channel! Love the content, not pretentious, really cool and love the experiments!

Picked an Arctic up with no queue at the Covent Garden store earlier this week. It’s really fun! Looks great in person and feels better executed than the MoonSwatch.

The drilled lugs open to a small Allen key spring bar. Granted to remove them you'd need two small Allen keys to loosen it, but it is technically removable. Thanks for the review!

Great, thorough video. Good info on the counterclockwise winding, and that it is non-hacking. Thought mine was broke at first. Which btw I found in ebay for 125 over retail. Which is well worth it to me, as someone who spent time and gas money, to travel 250 miles, and wait in line over night in the cold, to leave empty handed at number 89 in line for the MoonSwatch.

I think the big difference between the two marketing campaigns is that you can go almost anywhere in the uk and there will be an Omega boutique or an Omega section within a watch store. However I’ve never seen a Blancpain in person as I never see them in stores. So if I was interested in the real thing there is no way to easily access it, try it on and then purchase. With the moonwatch I can go to 2 or 3 places within 5 miles tomorrow and pick one up immediately.

I love it and you picked the best colourway!

The logo on the side of the case is actually a Blancpain thing

Actually, the orginal fifty fathoms has "blancpain" on one side of the case as well. It's one of the main criticisms since it's like 15k

Thank you for the review

I hope enough of us watch this to offset the price you paid.

If you would rather have a Seiko, that’s fair, the Seiko will most likely last you longer. You can service a Seiko but I don’t know to many guys that would service one. This watch is for guys that buy Luxury watches and $400 is the same cost of their straps. It’s a bit of fun for them. If you like more affordable watches just buy a Seiko and wear it and buy an Omega or something in time.

Was just walking around Old Town Lucerne and the Swatch store there has all the models in stock! The person there said it’s new so they’ll have a lot in stock, so I got myself an Antarctic Ocean!

I think the idea that swatch is making these as a marketing tool to buy Blancpain is not the main reason they sell this. It's to make money from a name that they own. People buying a £340 watch will mostly never buy a 10k blancpain.

Hi thanks. How to wind the watch. Should it be counterclockwise winding using the crown? 😊

Not one single watch on the market is ‘worth’ the money. This is even more true of luxury watches. Not a single Rolex, Omega, Patek, whatever - they are all massively overpriced. People pay for the brand, the design perhaps, and the quality. All of these things are valuable. But comfortably the one single element that defines the price is the brand cache. Why can’t people see this is the case? This swatch is more expensive than other swatches, than Seiko 5s, than orients, than Timex, than a bunch of micros - BECAUSE IT IS ALSO A BLANCPAIN! It had the branding and the design, yes not the quality, but 2 outta 3 is decent and you pay a mark up for that. Why is it not ok here but is ok on all other luxury branded watches??? Honestly I think people annoyed at the price either 1. Don’t get it, or 2. Are snobs. If you want a decent quality watch only then yes buy an Orient for similar money. But ppl aren’t buying this for the quality - they are buying for the branding and the iconic design. So where Else can I get such a brand name and design for under $400 - ummm oh yeah the moonswatch!! Nice review btw - was well researched and pretty fair overall.

I got one in Geneva yesterday. And it makes me smile every time I look at it. Don’t ask me what time it is though, I really don’t care. Maybe I’ll use the watch for that function at a later time.

Nice review. Seiko 5 watches are great, their quality are much better than the Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms, but when you buy a watch it's about the design and the emotion. And Swatch with Omega, and now with Blancpain, have created some watches that you want to buy, because you think you have a kind of Omega Speedmaster, or a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, for an affordable price. It's an introduction to luxury watches.

Blancpain was the second choice for this project. Omega was the first. Now that they had exhausted the MoonSwatch with the funny chrono hands, they probably thought: and now let’s try the Blancpain too, we were thinking about that anyway. - With this one you are really paying for the name on the dial. If you want a watch with that name and only spend very little, then this one is for you.

Yes blancpain will be releasing the normal sized diver we’ve all been waiting for and this and the anniversary editions of the ff are all ways to drum up the hype

I have the speedmaster pro, and bought the moonswatch out of curiosity once the hype had died down. In free advertising alone I guess the moonswatch worked. And the trade up to the real thing kinda of affordable if you buy interest free on monthly payments, similar to buying latest iphone on contract, so maybe some up selling occurred. Challenge with this collaboration, initial outlay is getting past fun. And the real 50 fathoms costs 3 times the price of a speedy. And it's big on the wrist. And the 50 fathoms looks like an old mans watch. Just isn't desirable. I can't see upgrade happening. I don't think hype will last long, but maybe for blancpain, the advertising is enough. I guess swatch will get a short term hit. I guess we will just have to wait for James Bond Swatch 300m seamaster, maybe with Snoopy in the back?

The bars screw together like the real Fifty Fathoms and can be removed using two 0.9mm hex wrenches.

Casio a168 drop test and hammer test plssss big fan

Does it damage the watch if you tried to wind it clockwise?

Casio a168 drop test and hammer test plssss big fan😢

Does the watch have conventional removable strap bars, or are they fixed forever, so permanently necessitating the use of Nato straps ?

The bezel is way better than a Seiko. I have a turtle. The bezel actually springs back into its position, with the turtle you have to most of the time manipulate the marker to get it just right.

It actually looks okay and I think you've picked the best version. Even if you like it though and you love the history the price of a " fifty fathoms " is for most people a bridge too far. Though if it generates interest in watches it can't be bad. Your reference for John claude Biver. Hope you get your money back and thanks for the review.

your point about ghost position seems weird and wrong? the watch in your hand has a ghost position? I bought the same one (after researching this topic and they actually removed the ghost position for these models without date)

Invicta got the idea from Blancpain to label the side of the case... not sure you knew about that tid bit...

They need to make a black version of this watch collection…. Let’s hope maybe soon

I'd buy it for Moonswatch MSRP.... $400 even feels too steep

Kinda sad that you feel the way that I do, though I didn't buy it due to my bad experience with sistem51 ha ha. Well, it's a beautiful design I can't lie but the price makes the homage is way better

can we start calling this the Swatch Pain?

very nice watch

Does this have a screw down crown online you read yes and no

I would buy a Fifty Fathoms (Mil-Spec) like Hodinkee was selling, but they only want to make 250. Now, that watch is for sale around 3x MSRP. No way in hell am I paying what the flippers want. So, the only way I’m getting one is if Blancpain will make some more. If they don’t we all loose. 😅 I would have like to see this watch made out of a metal. Black dial too.

Is this watch have ghost position on the crown? Since it did not have date

Im obsessed with this collection but I would never buy it for that price, hopefully some other manufacturers produce something similar for a fraction, I could see seiko 5's made outta plastic for around 180usd 120 on the gray market. I think Swatch has been very very creative and know how to stand out but at that price point you're competing with serious options.

I’ll take a King Turtle or HELM Vanuatu every day over any $400 plastic watch.

Can the watch be serviced ? I hear system 51 you cannot

Joining the crowd calling BS on the whole “moonswatch drastically increased moonwatch sales” narrative. Like OO’M has said - without seeing the pre and post sales data, it’s just makes-sense-to-me-so-must-be-true. More numbers; less sophistry.

i hate the caseback and the dumb circle at the 6. If they do a non "scuba" im in

I don't hate the watch, I hate the price though...

I only like this one because it has no date window

Throwing you a comment and like purely to help out! $800. Yikes!

The claim of a ceramic case is false. It's a injection moulded, or pressed case, using a plasticized resin, and a ceramic powder bulking medium. A real ceramic case would be formed from very high grade compound, and would then be fired, at exceptionally high temperature. The case shrinks during this process. It's very difficult to do, with a high error rate, and is very expensive. So this is a plastic cased watch, that's glued together, so it's disposable. The movement is mainly plastic. BUT the cost is $400! Do you remember the plastic crisis last year? People: what are your values?

It's 2/3 ceramic 1/3 plastic. Why are you calling it plastic?

I thought the caseback was supposed to be saffire?

I agree with you. Buy a Seiko and not this lump of plastic.

$400 for a disposable plastic toy watch with a non-serviceable movement = cash grab from Swatch, just like the Moonswatch. But this won't have the hype of the Moonswatch, as 99.9% of non-watch nerds have never heard of Blancpain.

fred lip rip glad you didnt see this one all the energie you put in the BP Fifty Fathoms and the war against timex like companies

I like the 50 Fathoms a lot, but... 45mm and what, 14mm thickness? Too chunky. I LOVE their LE versions: No Date Mil-Spec, No Date Barakuda. Both no-date, 40mm. Will I pay $15K aftermarket for them? Absolutely not! If they made the Antarctic Ocean in 40mm, priced at roughly Submariner level, $9500-$10K, they would go from having my attention to having my interest. Until that day, they can keep their $400, unservicable McDonalds toy watch.

You are better buying a Baltic Aquascaphe.

Oh that's a nice watch. Maybe I'll go and buy the real thing. A Rolex Submariner

Worth $100 or less sistem51 is less than a $20 movement lol….

Swatch is selling for 400 dollars even in India

A hipe-ish plastic watch dedicated to the oceans...It is a 400€ trashy-performative contradiction by itself

lego watch

Its targeted for poor people to push up the value of other brands.

relojes que no se pueden reparar, de mala calidad, muy caros para ser de plástico

You can get a Helson Skindiver for $750 - a great replica of the first Blancpain dive watch - better movement, no plastic, serviceable, better all round.

400 euros throwing out on window

After i bought two of the moonswatches , and seeing how cheaply made they are ,ill pass

Everyone’s got a gimmick

Buy a Seiko

Nice chinese watch!

These watches suck. They couldn’t even do aluminum keepers on the strap? Lmao. All of these collabs are garbage. But this one is far worse than the Speedmasters. The color ways are terrible on each one. And I’m not a snob. I wear my explorer 1, along with my khaki field, a $30 Casio, and a seiko sports 5 gmt. I would never spend $150 on this let alone $400. Tbh, I’m not even sure I would spend $150 on this. (If that was the price).

It’s NOT plastic, tho! lol 🤷‍♂️

I will not be buying this crap

THE SECOND HAND SWEEPS

Casio a168 drop test and hammer test plssss big fan