The "Deep" Rules of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms

　　Mr Fiechter's diving instructor later commented like thisBlancpain Fifty FathomsWho knows how many divers' lives these patents you invented have saved from the hands of Poseidon, the god of the sea!

　　Until 1952, modern diving had been popular in Europe and America for a mere 7 years. At that time, because divers lacked professional diving watches, issues such as misjudgements of remaining oxygen time or water ingress into the watch frequently occurred, and the ruthless sea would often claim their lives! These problems also troubled Mr Jean-Jacques Fiechter, the then CEO of Blancpain and a professional diver himself, who urgently needed to invent a professional...diving watch！

　　From having nothing unique to truly owning one, the challenges faced by Mr Fiechter and Blancpain were unimaginable. Drawing on his own experience and requirements to raise the problem, starting from a blank sheet of paper and pouring his heart and soul into three patented technologies, he broke through numerous obstacles and ultimately gave birth to the Fifty Fathoms, a truly modern diving watch in the true sense. Moreover, the seven industry "underwater" rules for diving watches subsequently defined by Blancpain further ushered in a golden era for marine exploration and the diving industry.

　　Three exclusive patented technologies

　　1. Double-sealed crown

　　Mr Fiechter had once personally experienced a situation where a diver accidentally pulled out the crown of a water-resistant watch underwater, causing the dial to burst due to the immense pressure of the seabed. Therefore, the very first problem he thought of was the water resistance of the crown. He developed a double-sealed crown; even if the crown was pulled out underwater, there was a second sealing ring that could provide water-resistant protection for the watch. He applied for patent technology for this invention.

　　2. "O"-ring metal guide channel

　　The water resistance of the case back is also a tricky problem, because when the case back is screwed down and secured, the "O"-shaped rubber ring sealing the case back may twist and shift out of alignment. To address this issue, Mr Fiechter ingeniously created another patented technology, using an additional metal guide channel to fix the "O"-shaped rubber ring in the groove.

　　3. Unidirectional rotating bezel with locking function

　　The safety of diving was even more urgent for Mr Fiechter to solve, because the remaining usable time of oxygen is a matter of life and death for divers. His solution was that at the start of the dive, by turning the bezel to set the zero-marker at the minute hand, the diver could directly read the timing information underwater according to the scale on the bezel. But was doing this absolutely safe? He realised that this rotating bezel must be locked and must not accidentally rotate forwards or backwards on the seabed, so he invented the third patented technology, a unidirectional rotating bezel with a locking function.

　　Blancpain's diving watch standards are even regarded as ironclad rules by the watchmaking industry and professional diving organisations, fully demonstrating...Blancpain Fifty Fathoms...the powerful influence and far-reaching guiding role brought to the modern diving watch industry.