Our first live auction of 2025, the PHILLIPS Geneva Watch Auction: XXI, takes place on 10 - 11 May, at the Hotel President, at Quai Wilson 47, in central Geneva. The auction includes nearly 200 of the world's finest watches – and though we are loath to boast, we truly think it's one of the best catalogs we've ever put together. We'll be highlighting a number of the most interesting lots and stories featured in the sale over the next month, including all the watches detailed below.
– By Logan Baker
There’s something about vintage Blancpain that just hits differently. Maybe it’s the way the brand moved in its own lane while bigger names fought for attention. Maybe it’s the rugged good looks of its early sport watches — the Fifty Fathoms, the Air Command — that feel effortless today. Or maybe it’s because Blancpain made watches that weren’t just pretty. They had real jobs to do. They saved lives underwater. They kept pilots on course. They mattered.
You won’t find dozens of vintage Blancpain references floating around. The brand played it tight, releasing purpose-built pieces in small numbers. That scarcity, combined with how well the watches were made, is why collectors light up when a great one surfaces. And right now, two of the best examples — the Fifty Fathoms and the Air Command — are coming to the Phillips Geneva Watch Auction: XXI, this May.
Let’s dig in.
The Fifty Fathoms
When you think of dive watches today — bold markers, luminous hands, chunky rotating bezels — you’re thinking of the Fifty Fathoms. Blancpain didn’t just make a dive watch in the early 1950s. They helped define the dive watch. They were one of the brands that wrote the rules.
Jean-Jacques Fiechter, Blancpain’s CEO at the time, was a passionate diver himself. He knew what a real dive watch needed. Water resistance. Legibility in dark water. A bezel you could trust with your life. An automatic movement so you didn’t have to wind the watch every day and risk flooding the case. Fiechter wasn’t guessing. He was living it. Then he partnered with Bob Maloubier and Claude Riffaud, French military legends, to make sure it worked when it mattered most.
This Fifty Fathoms example tells one of the coolest backstories in vintage watches. In 1957, an amateur diver named Mr. Matthouse was training in the South of France. He wasn’t wearing a dive watch. One of the instructors noticed and offered to sell him one, straight from the source, at a "factory" price. Mr. Matthouse asked how that was possible. The man just smiled and said, “I make them.” It was Fiechter himself.
So this watch isn’t just a Fifty Fathoms — it’s a Fifty Fathoms sold by the man who invented the watch. It comes with photos, diving logs, and even service records from Blancpain’s Atelier Vintage in 2016. It's the real deal.
The specs hold up, too. A 41mm stainless steel case. A bakelite bezel. A black lacquered dial that’s aged the way you hope it would. Everything you want, nothing you don’t.
The Air Command
The Air Command is different. It’s a legend because, for a long time, nobody even knew if it officially existed.
Here's the story: After crushing it with the Fifty Fathoms, Blancpain set its sights on the skies. They built a prototype pilot’s chronograph and pitched it to the U.S. Air Force. But no contract came through, and Blancpain shelved the project. The Air Command never went into mass production. For decades, collectors traded stories about it. Nobody could find paperwork. It became a ghost.
Until recently.
Thanks to some serious digging, documents surfaced: a 1958 issue of Revue Internationale d'Horlogerie showing the Air Command under Blancpain’s Rayville brand. Even better, a 1967 letter from Rayville/Blancpain spelled out the Air Command’s specs in black and white — 42mm stainless case, flyback chronograph, black luminous dial, tachometer scale, rotating bezel. It was proof the watch was real.
The example coming to auction is awesome. It's clean, sharp, and ready for action. Even better, it comes with a Blancpain Vintage Service Report confirming its authenticity.
Owning an original Air Command isn’t like buying a vintage Carrera or Daytona. Those are great watches, but they’re always available. The Air Command is different.
Why It Matters
Vintage Blancpain sport watches aren’t just cool because they look good on Instagram. They’re cool because they meant something when they were made. The Fifty Fathoms helped shape the diving history. The Air Command was a myth that's finally been confirmed as real.
You can learn more, place a bid, and view the entire Geneva Watch Auction: XXI catalogue right here.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade reporting on every aspect of the watch business. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
Recommended Reading
How Independent Watchmakers Are Rethinking the Escapement
Why Collectors Are Falling Back in Love With Time-Only Vintage Watches
Inside The Philippe and Elisabeth Dufour Foundation