Blancpain

Hi Guys,

Wet afternoon in south west france, so a good time to put together a post I've been wanting to do for a while now.

I bought this watch about a year ago, after studying Billy Schorr's artical on the Bund issued Fifty Fathoms, but the crown concerns me> What to do you guys think, do we have any experts on these models on the forum?

So here we go.....

Here's the front face, nicely aged, does still glow for a while after the lights are out (once its been held over the light bulb for a while) and I'm really happy that the 12 o'clock insert is intact.

(yes, I was wearing a blue t-shirt the day I took the photo!! ;-)

A view from 1 o'clock

A view from 8 o'clock

A view from 7 o'clock, 4 digit serial number between the lugs at 6 o'clock

A view from 10 o'clock

Back off, and a look at the movement

Inside the back cover

And a shot of the movement itself

Close up of the movement number

Now we arrive at the area of concern - its a VON logo on the crown. Indented into the crown (unlike the Squale watch I have).

I seem to remember reading somewhere (possibly on another forum) about some sort of connection between the case maker for Squale and this particular model of fifty fathoms, so I really hope this has been a replacement item during a repair.

This shot shows a Squale 500atms on top of the Fifty Fathoms, the case size difference is amazing!!

The FF has a much more impressive presence on the wrist, and the drilled strap pin holes, with the pressed in place bars really give you a sense of the watches tough operating abilities!!

This photo isn't that great, but the inverted, or indented logo on my FF crown is the same shape as on the Squale, only on the squale it sticks out.

So thats it, my Blancpain Bund Fifty Fathoms.

Anyone have any ideas regarding the crown?

Cheers Tony

I am sure that one our exprienced members will jump in and give some sound and useful advice.

Nice post with very good explanations, wouldn't have minded seeing a picture of the dial on the squal.

Best regards,

George

Here you go George

Thanks for the picture.

Best regards,

That kind of bezel wire is common on old unidirectional dive watches. (Your diagram is pretty good, too)

FIrst off I'd try just tweaking the existing spring to help stop the ends catching. (Tweaking also allows you to increase/obtain more even friction)

Failing that, you can buy Stainless Steel wire to make one up. Problem will be getting the correct diameter and the second is the fact that you might have to buy metres of the stuff (unless you can find a kind soul to just snip some off for you).

Then all you need to do is lay the wire over the old one an use it as a bend template. The trick is to keep the wire flat, that is, on bending it will have a tendency to coil/spiral.

I have had some success with this using the thinnest lockwire I could find in the toolbox.

Thanks BDLJ, I have access to some workshops who use pretty small INCONEL for wire locking hydraulic components. I'll give them my best smile see if I can come away with a few inches worth. Thanks for the tip.