Blancpain

Jehan-Jacques Blancpain was registered as a watchmaker in the village of Villeret in 1735. Blancpain became famous for its highly complex machines and remained a family business for almost 200 years. Today Blancpain is part of the Swatch Group. During the quartz boom of the 1970s, Blancpain went through a hard time and lived a quiet life. Blancpain never produced any quartz watches, but the name was resurrected by various entrepreneurs and from 1983 the factory workers tended the workshop garden and made watches. Watches from this period are highly sought after, as the production runs were so small that the history of the watch can be traced back to the watchmaker who cast the watch. Blancpain’s most popular models include Le Brassus, Leman, Villeret and perhaps the most popular, the 50 Fathoms, made for French divers and launched in 1954.