Short History
In 1952 the French Ministry of Defense needed a wristwatch for their elite combat diver team, the Frogmen. The Frogmen specialized in intelligence gathering, sabotaging ships and seaports, generally done at night. Tasked with finding a watch to satisfy the team's needs, Captain Robert Maloubier and Lieutenant Claude Riffaud set out to find a watch company capable of doing so. Finally, after shopping around for some time, they met with then CEO of Blancpain, Jean-Jacques Fiechter. Fiechter, being a diver himself, agreed to produce the watches and as a bonus improved the design. In 1953 the watch, Blancpain 50 Fathoms, was completed and hailed as a great innovation in the dive watch industry, being water-resistant to depths of 300ft and easy to read at night, it proved extremely useful to the French Navy. The phrase Fifty Fathoms refers to a unit of marine depth measurement, one unit is 1.829 meters, and 50 fathoms is 91.45 meters or around 300 feet. In late 1950's the Blancpain Aqualung was made and water-resistant to depths of 1000 feet.
Features
Condition: Pre-Owned
Brand/Manufacturer: Blancpain
Model: Aqua Lung
Ref./Serial/Year: 1950's
Case: S.Steel 41 mm wide "not inc. crown"
Lug Width: 20mm
Bezel: Beautiful see pictures
Band: Leather
Dial: 100% Original. 100% Beautiful. Great patina
Movement: Serviced and running perfectly in every way.
One Year Warranty
Return Policy: All item descriptions and pictures are accurate and of the actual watch you are bidding on.
One Year Mechanical Warranty only on watches with warranty in the description
Warranty includes: watch keeps time to manufacturer standards, mainspring, gaskets and case structure, and all parts are original and/or as described above.
Warranty does not include: crystal, crown, chrono pushers or damage by misuse (water damage, dropped, etc.)
Watches marked As-is, cannot be returned.