Blancpain’s Fifty Fathoms model is widely recognised for its historical significance as being the first ‘modern’ diver’s wristwatch with a unidirectional rotating bezel, released in 1953. The story of its origin 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 the design for what would one day be the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. Very large for the time (41 mm), expensive and with a limited audience (basically, only professional divers), the watch was regarded with much suspicion by most brands approached for its manufacture. The CEO of Blancpain - Mr. Jean-Jacques Fiechter - was however an avid diver, and agreed to produce the watch, thus began the history of this iconic model.

While the watch is today known as Fifty Fathoms, a number of different names can be found on the dials of early specimens. This is due to the commercialization strategy adopted for the watch. The main suppliers for civilian version were: LIP in France and Aqua Lung for the watches mainly exported to the US. The savvy eye of the cognoscenti Blancpain collector will notice that the present civilian version retailed by Aqua Lung bears a rather unusual dial. Indeed, most of the 1000 feet were only displaying this information when the present one has two additional rows mentioning Rotomatic and Incabloc. This detail gives the dial a smooth balance and tremendous harmony.

The present Blancpain Aqua Lung bears without a doubt a special significance as it was selected to be part of the exhibition organized in celebration of the company's 275th Anniversary. Not only this detail renders the watch historically relevant, but it bears an additional bonus. As stated on the accompanying certificate, the piece was examined by Blancpain before being selected. Given that, quite likely, the company had a number of representatives of the model to choose from - obviously, the best examples they could find - and this specific specimen was selected out of them, it means that not only Blancpain deems it absolutely correct, but it also deems it, quite literally, the "best of the best".