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The Revival of Blancpain
Established about two and half centuries ago, Blancpain was founded by Jehan-Jacques in 1735. The watchmaker transformed a farmhouse into his shop to build his watches. His innovative and inventive character was reflected in his masterpiece watches.
The company restarted in 1983 when it was bought over by Jean-Claude Biver, a former managing director of Omega and Jacque Piguet.
Under the new CEO, their first masterpieces were an ultra-slim mens watch, the moonphase, split-seconds chronograph, perpetual calendar, tourbillon and a minute repeater. These are timepieces that are in memory and reflective of Jehan-Jacques’ tradition and mastery in watchmaking.
In 1994, the company created a 2100 series mens watch that gained the first prize in “Swiss Watch of the Year” awards. It is a self-winding calendar which the 21 stands for 21st century and the 100 represent the 100 hours of power reserve, a 100 hour test period and a 100 meter water resistance.
Now Blancpain is owned by Swatch Group since year 2000. In 2001 they created the Le Brassus Quattro platinum watch with self-winding movement. Quattro represents the four hand finished movements – a tourbillon regulator, perpetual calendar, flyback chronograph, and split-seconds chronograph.
The Le Brassus Quattro has altogether 432 parts consisting of a platinum rotor with 39 jewel movements.
The dial is clean and neat that displays clearly the hour and minute markers as well as a power reserve at 9. It uses Roman numerals against its blue (as shown on the left) or silvered opaline dial.
Some more Villeret collections: Another great creation would be the Leman Automatic Moonphase Calendar mens watches. These are produced in 18 karat red gold, white gold, and stainless steel with an astonishing 100 hours power reserve. The overall appeal of this watch is its contemporary look.
Other Leman collections:
Another Le Brassus collection with a unique dial that was put together through elaborate and technically complex movement. The Le Brassus full-calendar GMT watch has functions such as day, date, month, and moonphase indicated on the dial.
The date is not as a counter but instead each day is marked with Arabic numeral on the outer dial. There is an extra hand with crescent at the tip that indicates specifically the dates. The moonphase is at 6 including the subseconds hand. It also has a GMT indicator displaying the time of day at all 24 zones.
Return from Blancpain back to Mens Watches Guide
| Boucheron | Blancpain | Breitling | Breguet | Chopard | Chronoswiss | Concord | Daniel Roth | | Daniel JeanRichard | De Bethune | Ebel | De Witt | | Dubey Schaldenbrand | Eberhard & Co. | European Company Watch | | FP Journe | Franck Muller | Girard Perregaux | Graham | | Hermes | Invicta | IWC | Jaeger LeCoultre | | Jean Mairet & Gillman | Locman | Omega | Panerai | | Parmigiani | Patek Philippe | Rolex |
One of the slimmest mens watches produced by Blancpain was the Villeret 4040. It has a 40mm wide case made of 18 karat white or red gold. It is ultra-slim with a self-winding movement.
