Blancpain

The story of Blancpain begins in the village of Villeret, having been founded by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in 1735. Although the brand produced many high-quality watches, it was not until the Fifty Fathoms model of the 1950s that they achieved their first great commercial success. However, like many of its peers, the brand succumbed to insolvency during the quartz crisis of the 1970s, before rising like a phoenix in 1983 under the leadership of the legendary Jean-Claude Biver.

Biver’s strategy was to reposition the brand as a maker of high horology and complications, even adopting the tagline: “There has never been a quartz Blancpain, and there never will be.” It was during this rebirth that watches like the present Flying Tourbillon were produced. In fact, the Calibre 23 used in this watch holds the distinction of being the world’s first-ever flying tourbillon. At Biver’s direction, Blancpain collaborated with the important watchmaker Vincent Calabrese, who had been designing this movement exclusively for F. Piguet and Blancpain.

Despite housing a tourbillon, a date complication, and an eight-day power reserve with indicator, the movement is just 7.5 mm thick—truly an impressive feat of engineering for the time.

Cased in platinum and complete with its boxes and papers, this watch—numbered 42—represents not just an important moment for the Blancpain brand, but a pivotal chapter in watchmaking history, when the industry was undergoing a rebirth at the hands of passionate leaders who would ultimately reshape the landscape. This watch combines the legacies of many into one compact 34 mm case.