BLANCPAIN Fifty Fathoms « MILSPEC1 »
The reference on the wrist of Jacques Cousteau in « The World of Silence » movie and of many combat divers. The French of course but also German and even the Americans as the US Navy selected the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms for its combat divers. It could not buy it directly and had to use a local importers: Mr. Tornek (hence the tag « TORNEK RAYVILLE » on the dial, Rayville was briefly the name of Blancpain as the time). The current piece is so good that Blancpain used it to represent the Fifty Fathoms MILSPEC1 during its 275th anniversary exhibitions in 2010. That says it all!
Serial: 3065 (1960/1962).
Dial: Glossy dial with « wet mirror » effect and a beautiful chapter ring. Perfect humidity indicator (rare in this condition). Sublim index and hands with radium luminous material is radium. The later is still reacting very strongly to UV test. This combinaison provides to this timepiece one of the if not the best readability of the diving watches of that period.
Case: if you liked the dial take a look at the case. Mint condition dark grey 41mm in « micro-blasted steel ». The caseback is made of 3 pieces to ensure « watertightness » as they said at the time. The crown was replaced during a service but we have located an original one.
Movement: automatic caliber 1361.
Bracelet: non original nylon nato
Paper: Blancpain certificate that it choose the watch to represent Fifthy Fathom MILSPEC1 during its anniversary exhibitions.
A beautiful monster that should belong to any curated collection.
