Review – Chronoswiss Regulator Classic Date
It’s not easy designing a watch that really differentiates itself from the crowd. Obviously, there’s more to a watch than an outward appearance and I’m generalizing, but I’ve always liked brands that have a distinct style that’s easily recognized. You know a Panerai, Rolex or Roger Dubuis when you see it, for example. You’ll also spot a Chronoswiss in the crowd with their knurled cases and oversized onion crowns, and a style they arguably do best – the regulator. I recently wrote a hands-on article about the Flying Grand Regulator Skeleton Limited Edition, which was an almost futuristic take on the regulator setup. Their Regulator Classic Date is a more subdued and traditional piece, yet maintains the Chronoswiss DNA throughout. Let’s take a closer look at the silver edition of a future classic.
It was the kind of unanswerable question only a toddler could ask. We were sitting in a sun-warmed café window-seat early one morning, and the moon was still visible in the blue sky. While I sipped my latte, and my eldest daughter, Indie, smeared as much of her berry smoothie on her upper lip as possible, I’d mused out loud, “Can you believe we went there? All the way to the moon for a walk and to collect some rocks and then home again …” My voice trailed off. Indie’s piped up. “Why haven’t we been back?” [BUY THE MAGAZINE NOW] I didn’t have an immediate response. Eventually, I came up with something: “We did it well enough the first time, I guess.” (Of course, we did go back – there were six manned moon landings between 1969 and 1972. But a five-year-old girl is not worried about facts. And we really only remember our first time.) A couple of weeks later, I think I can expand on that thought. Some achievements are so epic that they don’t necessarily beg to be repeated. Some works of art are so beautiful that it’s clearly pointless to try to improve on them. And…
Blancpain’s Bathyscaphe is one of those rare, chameleonic watch designs. A watch that, broadly speaking, owes great fidelity to its primogenitor, but a watch that doesn’t look dated. It’s a neutral watch — something that gives the Bathyscaphe broad appeal and great versatility. In steel, it’s a classic, traditional dive watch, but here, in black ceramic, it’s something much more modern in style. And the execution of the ceramic really is gorgeous. Crisp lines, even brushed finishes, really lovely stuff — the material is finished like metal, but with ceramic’s advantages of light weight and scratch resistance. No matter how you slice it, the case of this watch is cool. The dial isn’t half bad either, and I quite like how reserved Blancpain has been, keeping the hour markers quite small, when it must have been tempting to scale them up. The result is, to my eye, a more subtle, versatile watch dial, which doesn’t scream ‘diver!’ at the top of its lungs. This is a watch you could definitely wear daily, with a suit (especially in the smaller case size), or for any Cousteau-esque underwater adventures you might have planned. Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe black ceramic Australian pricing Blancpain Fifty…
