Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 1000 Barakuda

An extremely rare vintage wristwatch for combat swimmers and divers in the Bundeswehr. Today, the Barakuda is one of the most sought-after military watches on the global collectors' market. There was a rapid increase in demand for reliable diving watches towards the end of the 20th century, particularly in the military sector. This sector has the highest demands on robustness, precision and water resistance. In 1953 Blancpain was commissioned by the French military to develop a mechanical, automatic wind diver’s watch with a unidirectional bezel that featured a graded Bakelite insert to display the diving time. The watch was named 'Fifty Fathoms', because it was water-resistant to a depth of 50 fathoms (1 fm = 1,829 m), i.e., 91.45 m. In the 1960s, Blancpain collaborated with the equipment supplier Barakuda to produce a special model for the Bundeswehr combat swimmers. The watches had an lever movement with a rotor winding, were antimagnetic and could withstand pressure of up to 10 bar. The markings and hands were coated with tritium. As these watches were not fully anti-magnetic, the mine divers had to remove them before approaching a mine. The striking colour helped them to be found again. This watch comes from Konrad Knirim's extensive collection of military timepieces.