The Villeret collection is among Blancpain’s earliest treasures. Its elegant exoskeleton houses classical time-telling display, with its Roman chapter ring, double-stepped bezel and conservative dial layout that’s remained overwhelmingly unchanged since its beginning. The group has seen its fair share of complications like moonphases and tourbillons, but the newest is a Villeret GMT that’s a very welcome addition.
Powered from the automatic-winding 5A50 motion, it displays a second time-zone that sits at a slightly recessed ring within the periphery, gestured with a red-tipped arrow. The clean dress watch is available from 18k red gold and steel variations, in alligator strap or mille mailles bracelet.
For the ladies watches, the Villeret conveys a brand new date version with features that accentuate the femininity of the timepiece. In the Villeret Women Date, the date displays through an oval aperture at 3 o’clock, using a ribbon redesign that is more cursive.
Both the steel and red gold versions incorporate a brilliant diamond setting, with 48 across the bezel and the following 8 to the hour markers, which pitted against white and opaline dials. An automatic-winding 1151 calibre sits inside the 33.2millimeter case, and gives an outstanding 4-day power book. In addition to the options of either an alligator strap or complete bracelet, the watches also include the stylistic addition of a kit that includes five interchangeable wristbands.
Fans of the brand could be familiar with Blancpain’s conquest of the seven seas, together with numerous homage and editions specializing in the Fifty Fathoms.
Reviving the era of the golden age of flying, Blancpain reissues the Air Command that could arguably be a replica of the first. The 2019 version keeps the all-black dial, bezel, and totalisers, the latter which are now 30-minute and 12-hour counters.
Also beneath the box sapphire crystal are”old radium”-kind SuperLuminova? About the numerals, indicators and hands to replicate the outdated lume of vintage timepieces. One of the requests for the first chronograph to be made was that it needed to be equipped with a flyback purpose; a non-stop reset and restart.
This then is not absent from the F388B, which is match with a column-wheel vertical and system clutch for easy time dimension. The motion is visible through the sapphire caseback, which can be wound automatically via a thematic propeller-shaped oscillating weight. The new Air Controller is sized at 42.5mm at a stainless steel and also dressed in a brown leather strap with contrasting stitching, and made from a limit of 500 pieces.