SEA CHANGE

While receiving a conservation award is an honour, the real reward Blancpain seeks from its efforts to protect the seas is improved oceanic conditions

Blancpain’s connection with diving and the underwater world runs deep—the brand created the Fifty Fathoms, the world’s very first modern diving watch designed and built for military and civilian purposes. Launched in 1953, the Fifty Fathoms is a product born from a passion for diving—that of Jean-jacques Fiechter, who was Blancpain’s CEO from 1950 to 1980. The watch is also a result of Fiechter’s collaboration with Captain Robert “Bob” Maloubier and Lieutenant Claude Riffaud, founders of the French Navy’s combat swimmers corps. The name of this legendary watch clearly signals its links to the sea. Fifty Fathoms refers to the depth that was considered to be the safe

maximum for divers back in the 1950s. Of course, modern versions of the watch are built to go much further than 50 fathoms (about 91m) in the sea. Most of them have a water-resistance of 300m, with the exception of the aptly named 500 Fathoms, which can go approximately 1,000m deep. But Blancpain’s fervour for diving doesn’t stop at making outstanding watches designed for the discipline. For many years, the brand has also been committed to ocean protection via endeavours that promote knowledge of the underwater world and provided support to important activities and initiatives dedicated to its preservation. Through its Ocean Commitment programme, the manufacture not only supports scientific and oceanographic projects and related leading organisations, but also major publications, exhibitions and other events around the globe. These initiatives include the Pristine Seas expeditions, a National Geographic-led project held from 2011 to 2016 to explore and help save the last wild areas in the ocean; French biologist Laurent Ballesta’s Gombessa project, which focuses on studying some of the rarest, most elusive