Blancpain Celebrates 70 Years of the Fifty Fathoms with Tech Gombessa

This year marks the 70th anniversary of one of the most important dive watches ever made, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. To celebrate the occasion, Blancpain will be releasing a trio of Fifty Fathom “Acts”, the first of which was released in January featuring a new 42mm case. The second act of this anniversary year is celebrating Blancpain’s 10 year relationship with Gombessa diving expeditions, and the release of the Fifty Fathoms Tech Gombessa watch, a modern take on the platform built with a specific purpose in mind. We got our hands on the Tech Gombessa during its launch (which was hosted by our friend Jason Heaton), and discovered a few surprising takeaways. 

To fully appreciate the Tech Gombessa, an understanding of the Gombessa diving expeditions is in order. Led by highly decorated wildlife photographer and diver (and Nikon ambassador), Laurent Ballesta, the Gombessa expeditions have studied some of the most elusive marine life and phenomenon on earth. The goals of these expeditions are centered around three pillars: a scientific mystery, a diving challenge and the promise of unprecedented images. To date, there have been five such expeditions, all underwritten by Blancpain, and each producing a wealth of knowledge and stunning visuals. Ballesta was named Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2017, 2021, and 2022 for his efforts.

In order to study and capture the underwater locations and wildlife, the team utilizes closed-circuit rebreather diving techniques, allowing them to remain at greater depths far longer than open circuit diving would allow for, and to reduce the amount of bubble being produced from the system, which can adversely affect the wildlife being observed. While some dives have endured extended periods of time, the recommended length is 3 hours, and it’s this time frame that Ballesta challenged Blancpain to keep in mind in the creation of the Tech Gombessa. 

To that end, this special Fifty Fathoms features a rather peculiar complication, which adds a fourth hand to the dial making a full lap in three hours. The fourth hand tracks three hour increments against a bezel with three hour markings, including indexes each 5 minutes. The 3 hour hand is not independently set like a GMT hand, but rather is utilized in conjunction with the bezel, whose diamond marking can be rotating into place in line with the 3 hand to mark the beginning. 

The base of the dial is what Blancpain is calling absolute black, meant to provide maximum contrast with the applied orange lume blocks at each hour, which include the numerals. It’s a distinctive look that prizes legibility above all else. This is a very focused watch built for a very niche activity (a bit like the FXD), so there is no date to get in the way, and a helium release valve is placed at 10 o’clock along the case wall (if ever a watch were to need one, it’s this one).

During the launch of the watch, Ballesta explained that when running the dive computer connected to the closed-circuit rebreather system, that timing of the system often doesn’t align with the literal start of the dive, so he found himself actually using the watch in diving scenarios for this purpose. A watch used in these conditions needs to provide a large enough dial and bezel to be usable with gloves and easily visible from a distance, so this isn’t a small watch, but that doesn’t mean they threw out any wearability considerations. 

The Tech Gombessa is surprisingly easy to wear, despite its 47mm diameter. This is thanks to a few features that pay big dividends in use. First is the case material, which is titanium, which is seemingly used extensively here as the watch was bordering on shockingly light, but I chalk that up to the disparity between its overall size and the expectations you have when picking up a 47mm watch. The second feature that helps tremendously with wearability is the strap integration to the case. It’s not too far off of what we’ve seen in Blancpain’s X Fathoms watches, but it’s presented in a far more approachable way here. 

There are no traditional lugs in sight on this watch. Instead, the rubber strap is integrated directly to the case, with a small thumb of titanium filling the inverse of what you’d expect from a set of lugs. This means that the lug to lug distance of the watch is effectively 47mm as well, which is more than manageable for most wrists. The rubber strap is well considered as well, with a healthy taper and a deep channel through the center to reduce as much heft of the strap as possible.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a practical watch for many of us (it’s price alone disqualifies it in that regard), it’s a pretty extreme instrument overall, however, it is well considered in its approach to wearability to the point of being everyday usable. The strap integration is a big reason for that, and it’s something I’d love to see on a more pedestrian version of the watch. Their 42mm case with this type of strap would be quite compelling, I imagine. 

Inside, Blancpain is using their 13P8 automatic caliber which uses three barrels for a 5 day/120 hour power reserve. It’s a thin movement at 5.65mm, but is set within a functional 300m dive watch so total thickness of the watch is 14.8mm. The movement is visible through an exhibition caseback, which is the only detail that gives way to vanity with this watch, but it’s a nicely decorated unit so a welcome choice. 

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tech Gombessa is priced from $28,000 and is available from Blancpain boutiques now. Learn more about Gombessa expeditions and Laurent Ballesta right here, and I’d highly recommend giving his Instagram account a follow if you enjoy beautiful wildlife photography. Blancpain