Welcome to Issue 22

This Issue is a chronicle of a very special year for Blancpain as we mark several landmark anniversaries. First, of course, is the 70th birthday of the Fifty Fathoms. The second is very personal: the 20th anniversary since Blancpain brought the Fifty Fathoms back to life after a period of slumber. At the same time as we reignited our Fifty Fathoms patrimony, my own diving passion gave birth to Blancpain’s focus on ocean preservation, an effort that has come to be known as the ‘Blancpain Ocean Commitment’. Finally, and actually related to the Ocean Commitment, is the 10th anniversary of our co-founding of the Gombessa Expeditions, the ocean exploration project led by Laurent Ballesta with Blancpain’s unwavering support.

Anniversary celebrations inevitably call up a recounting of the past and our two articles, The Fifty Fathoms: A Retrospective 20 Years After Its Rebirth and Blancpain’s Ocean Commitment, bring these two histories to life. But we must also look to the future. In this Issue, we introduce the new Grade 23 titanium Bathyscaphes and, marking the formal beginning of the new Tech line within the Fifty Fathoms collection, the new Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary Act 2: Tech Gombessa.

Our devotion to ocean preservation and to support of the Gombessa projects comes to the fore in Laurent Ballesta’s The Mediterranean: The Fire Beneath The Sea and in our restaurant story featuring Christopher Coutanceau, whose three-star Michelin restaurant in La Rochelle shares our core values of respect for the environment.

Enjoy Issue 22!

Marc A. Hayek
President and CEO Blancpain