Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms is widely recognized for its historical significance as being the first ‘modern’ diver’s wristwatch with a rotating bezel, released in 1953. Even though Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms has been in production since then, scholarship regarding this fascinating model continues to be written. The story of its origins is well-known, rooted in solving the needs of an elite branch of the French Navy – the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage – tasked with underwater espionage and other covert operations. The head of this unit was Captain Bob Maloubier, and he personally sketched out the watch that would one day be fully realized as the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. Maloubier found a champion for his project in Blancpain’s CEO Jean-Jacques Fletcher - a passionate diver himself. Fletcher named the watch after the greatest depth that a combat diver was believed able to withstand at the time.

The name “Aqua-Lung” found on the dial derives from the first open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus invented in the winter of 1942 by Jacques Cousteau and Émile Gagnan, who later founded the company La Spirotechnique to manufacture and distribute their SCUBA equipment. The name AquaLung was chosen as it would be more appealing for American audiences, rather than the original French name of “scaphandre autonome”. To complicate these issues of nomenclature, the American sister company of La Spirotechnique was called U.S. Divers, which later changed their name to Aqua Lung and then to Aqua Lung America. As the Fifty Fathoms was a tool watch for those customers of Aqua Lung, Blancpain partnered with the SCUBA equipment company, and the first known cosigned wristwatch appeared on the cover of a US Divers catalogue in 1958.

The present Blancpain Aqua Lung bears an early case number and the beautiful 12 / 3 / 6 / 9 dial layout typical of Fifty Fathoms and Aqua Lungs of the era, with puffy luminous material that has aged beautifully over time, an exceptionally well-preserved case, and a perfectly intact Bakelite bezel.