Manufacturer
Blancpain
Also recorded as: Jehan-Jacques Blancpain
Claims the oldest watch brand name; maker of the Fifty Fathoms diving watch (1953).
Jehan-Jacques Blancpain is recorded as a watchmaker in Villeret in 1735. The family firm developed through the 19th century; the Fifty Fathoms (1953) was designed for French naval combat divers. After a quartz-era decline, Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet revived the name in 1983, committed to mechanical watches; the Swatch Group acquired it in 1992.
- Country
- Switzerland
- City / centre
- Villeret; later Le Brassus
- Founded
- 1735
- Status
- Active (Swatch Group since 1992)
- Key people
- Jehan-Jacques Blancpain; Jean-Claude Biver; Jacques Piguet
Innovations & specialities
- Fifty Fathoms diving watch (1953)
- Revival of complicated mechanical watches in the 1980s
Works by Blancpain in the catalogue
Open in the catalogue →
Wristwatches · circa 1930
Wristwatch by J. Harwood and Son; Blancpain, Switzerland, circa 1930
Science Museum Group, London
Wristwatches · 1930
Wristwatch by Harwood (Société Centrale de la Montre Sans Remontoir), Switzerland, 1930 (German Clock Museum Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_58042__technical_number_)
German Clock Museum
Wristwatches · 1932
Wristwatch by Blancpain, Switzerland, 1932
German Clock Museum
Wristwatches · circa 1955
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, circa 1955
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Clocks · circa 2010
Blancpain clock, circa 2010
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Clocks · circa 2015
Rueg Made for Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, circa 2015
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Wristwatches · circa 2020
Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, ref. 5008.11B30, circa 2020
Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
Linked through the Atlas maker authority list, which reconciles the spellings used by different institutions. Attributions are as stated by each holding institution or auction house.
