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A project of a slightly different sort...Blancpain Bathyscaphe


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No, not that modern crap. :bangin:

 

I picked this dial up years and years ago for no good reason as the only bidder on eBay from a seller in Japan for pennies. I then found the midcase and bezel a few years later by chance from a seller in Australia for cheap and the project was on. The case is not branded, but it is probably a Waltham, or similar. I do believe it is the correct case (there are a bunch of slight variants on this deep diver case). I added an AS 1701 movement (still need the black date disc) and a sterile but otherwise correct case back. It probably had the brand polished away at some point so that there is just a faint serial number left. I also bought the correct handset on eBay for just $30. Found it on my very first search!

 

But these are not those hands. The seller must have gotten another offer and magically "lost" them. Quite disappointing. So, here we have something that is close enough for now. The good news is that there are pictures of this watch on the internet with at least half a dozen hand sets, so either it came that way or the hands were replaced over the years. I would still like to find what I believe are the officially correct hands.

 

I still need the correct case back, or to get mine engraved. That will be tough, so I'll probably stick with the sterile back. I did find a Blancpain case back for the 34mm version for sale awhile back, but at $700 it was more than I have in the whole project by a good margin.

 

Cheers!

Blancpain Bathy.jpg

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"No, not that modern crap."

 

Cool project!

I have a watch with a similar case that I've had for many years and iirc it has an AS movement with the dial signed 'Waltham' and the rotor signed 'Elgin' (the rotor has been swapped out).

I have not seen it in years and looked for it but can not find it.

If it turns up I'll post a note in this thread if there is anything interesting about it.  Waltham had quite a few case designs and mine may not be the same as yours.

 

I did find a nos Benrus diver salesman's sample (case/dial/hands/crown/signed bracelet complete but no movement), a 1960s/1970s steel/auto Croton 200M diver, and a vintage Stowa Seatime in the project box while I was looking. 

I might have more projects than runners...  :hammer:

 

 

Waltham info:

 

https://www.timepiecechronicle.com/features/2017/1/9/lost-to-time-waltham-watch-company

 

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Quite a story. The reason I am guessing the midcase is Waltham is because they used the exact same cases as the BP equivalents on a number of models. 

 

The correct hands can be found on a bunch of Nivada watches, but for some completely inexplicable reason, Nivada dive watches are suddenly expensive. 

483FEA76-4029-4FD7-A8E7-A24963EC16DF.jpeg

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Wow Nanuq...Thanks so much for the offer. Love that second hand!

 

The correct hands (I believe) are in the pictures below. A bit different than the standard Fifty Fathoms hands.

 

Interestingly, both these watches are a bit dodgy. No markings on the case back, etc. They might have been cobbled together from parts too. :bangin:

 

Cheers.

Bathy.JPG

Bathy (1).jpg

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  • 11 months later...

"I swapped out the glass too, but will have to go back to the old crystal as the tension ring does not quite make the dial."

 

If the crystal is acrylic and  "the tension ring does not quite make the dial'  means the reflector is not quite wide enough...GS makes a line of acrylic armored crystals (press in type) that have extra wide reflector rings.  They are called Wide-Tite (WT).

 

Sizing example...if the crystal seat in the case is 30.0mm, you need a 30.1 or 30.2mm crystal, probably 30.1mm.  The wider the crystal seat, the bigger crystal OD you can get by with...a 33.0mm crystal seat will usually accept a 33.2mm OD ET or WT armored crystal. 

If a 30.1mm crystal seems to be a little bit loose in a 30.0mm crystal seat, you can apply a thin coat of epoxy or crystal cement to the crystal seat before pressing the crystal in the case to hold it in place.

 

W-T example:

https://www.esslinger.com/gs-watch-crystal-wt-wide-tite/

GS brand ET and WT crystals are the same except for the wider reflector ring on WT types. 

Specify reflector color when ordering.

'White' = chrome.

'Yellow' = goldtone.

 

GS round crystal types:

http://www.ofrei.com/page810.html

 

I never found the Waltham watch mentioned above.

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

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