The Timeline: News from Yema, Bulgari & Blancpain

This week The Timeline moves from one of the world's thinnest and most sophisticated complication watches to two models built for life far below the surface of the water.Bulgari colours its record thin Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar blue, Blancpain develops its specialised three-hour diver further and the French Yema takes the help of the Marine Nationale for two new limited Navygraf watches. Four very different watches, but all of them show that it is still possible to develop both the mechanical watch's technology and its visual expression.

Bulgari Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar, blue

When Bulgari presented the Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar in 2021 it was another chapter in the brand's chase for ultra-thin world records. With a total thickness of only 5.80 millimetres the model became the world's thinnest mechanical wristwatch with a perpetual calendar, a position it still holds. The same year the watch was rewarded with the Aiguille d’Or, the foremost distinction at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

Since then Bulgari has presented the complication in several different executions, among others in CarbonGold and rose gold. The latest version means no mechanical revolution, but shows how much a new colour can change an already established design.

The 40 millimetre and characteristically many-sided Octo chassis is still made in sandblasted titanium. Now the case has however been given a deep blue PVD treatment that continues across the blue lacquered dial and the matching alligator strap.

The result is close to monochrome. The Octo Finissimo's usually industrial and architectural character is still there, but the blue colour makes the watch both softer and more eye-catching. It is still a very technical creation, but no longer as strictly minimalist.

Against the dark blue background the silver coloured indexes and the grey rhodium-plated hands create a clear contrast. The retrograde date display runs as a semicircle across the upper part of the dial. The day of the week and the month are shown on a smaller scale each further down, while the leap year indicator has been placed at six o'clock.

Despite the amount of information the dial is experienced as unusually clean for a perpetual calendar. Bulgari avoids the many small subdials that are otherwise common within the genre and instead lets the calendar functions follow the Octo Finissimo's geometric design language.

At a distance the model could almost be mistaken for a more ordinary two-hander. It is only at a closer look that the extent of the complication becomes clear.

Under the dial works the manufacture calibre BVL 305. The automatic movement is only 2.75 millimetres thick but consists of a whole 408 components. A micro-rotor handles the winding and the power reserve amounts to 60 hours. The movement shows hours and minutes as well as the date, day of the week, month and leap year.

A correctly set perpetual calendar automatically takes account of the months' varying length and of leap years. As long as the watch is kept running the calendar should therefore not need to be corrected manually until the year 2100, when the Gregorian calendar's exception rules require an adjustment.

Bulgari has placed three discreet correctors in the side of the case for setting the date, month and day of the week. The water resistance is a more modest 30 metres, but this is after all a record thin complication watch rather than a sports model.

The new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar Blue Titanium has the reference 104262, is limited to 50 examples and costs 76 000 euro.

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tech

The diver's watch is basically a conservative instrument. Since the 1950s the principles have been fairly constant: a robust and water resistant case, a proper amount of luminous compound and a unidirectional rotating ring graduated over 60 minutes.

Blancpain itself played an important role in the development of these design principles when the original Fifty Fathoms was launched in 1953. With the Fifty Fathoms Tech the company is now trying to move the concept forward by adapting the mechanical diver's watch to a type of diving where a single hour is not always enough.

The starting point is the Fifty Fathoms Tech Gombessa from 2023. The model was developed for diving with closed rebreathers, systems that reuse the diver's exhaled gas by removing carbon dioxide and adding new oxygen.

Unlike traditional open diving equipment, where the available amount of air normally limits the time below the surface, a rebreather can make dives of several hours possible. The system moreover creates very few bubbles and less noise, which is an advantage for underwater photographers and marine biologists for example.

That is why Blancpain's patented system does not measure 60 minutes but a whole three hours.

The new Fifty Fathoms Tech, reference 5019A, keeps the specialised three-hour system but makes the whole somewhat more usable above the surface of the water too. That means among other things a date display, clearer colour coding and a new tool-free system for changing the rubber strap. The model is moreover part of the regular collection and is not limited to a particular edition.

Dainty it is not, however.

The case measures a whole 47 millimetres in diameter and 14.81 millimetres in height. That sounds close to off-putting on paper, but the use of Grade 23 titanium reduces the weight considerably. The unusual central strap attachment moreover means that the soft rubber strap quickly falls down around the wrist.

That does not mean that the watch is suddenly worn like a 42 millimetre model. It is still big, technical and probably more natural on the outside of a diving suit than under a shirt cuff. But the construction makes the dimensions more manageable than you might first think.

The case has a screwed crown, a helium valve and is water resistant to 300 metres. The wide, satin brushed titanium surfaces and the powerful rotating ring leave no doubt either that this is a purpose-built instrument.

The black dial has a surface that Blancpain calls Absolute Black. The material absorbs up to 97 per cent of the incoming light and thereby creates a close to reflection-free background. The large indexes, the hands and the bold Arabic numerals look almost as if they are floating above the dial.

The legibility is reinforced through two different colours on the luminous compound. The ordinary time display glows green, while the functions that are used for the diving itself glow blue.

That means the wearer can immediately tell the difference between the current time and the elapsed dive time even in the dark. The orange three-hour hand works at the same time as a clear visual bridge between the dial and the strongly orange rubber strap.

The three-hour system itself is simpler than it first sounds.

The orange central dive hand does a whole lap around the dial in three hours. At the start of the dive the rotating ring's glowing marking is aimed at the hand, in the same way that the minute marking is aimed at the minute hand on a traditional diver's watch. After that the elapsed time can be read off against the rotating ring's three-hour scale.

So Blancpain has not invented an entirely new way of using the diver's ring. They have taken a familiar function and adapted its time scale to modern rebreather diving.

Inside sits the automatic calibre 13P5A, a further development of Blancpain's well known calibre 1315. The movement consists of 226 components and works at 28 800 half vibrations per hour. Three barrels give a power reserve of a whole 120 hours, corresponding to five days.

The movement is shown through a sapphire crystal back, which almost feels excessively elegant on a watch that otherwise resembles a professional underwater instrument.

Most owners will of course never spend three consecutive hours under water with a closed rebreather. Even fewer are likely to use the watch during scientific expeditions among rare sea species.

But that is at the same time a big part of the model's appeal. The three-hour function is not there as an abstract mechanical display, but has been developed for a real and very specific need.

The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tech 5019A costs 20 500 Swiss francs or 27 200 dollars. The stated euro price has varied somewhat between markets and sources, but lies at around 24 000 euro.

Yema Navygraf Barracuda CMM.20 & Navygraf Marine Nationale 400th Anniversary Edition

The week's third and fourth watch is also developed with life below the surface of the water as a source of inspiration. But compared to Blancpain's gigantic diver we find ourselves here in a considerably more wearable size and an entirely different price class. The Yema Navygraf Barracuda CMM.20 Limited Edition has been developed together with the French Marine Nationale. The model pays tribute to France's submarine forces and the Barracuda class of nuclear powered attack submarines. The result is a militarily inspired Navygraf with a dial and rotating ring insert in forged carbon fibre, red tactical details and Yema's French-made micro-rotor movement. The stainless steel case measures 39 millimetres in diameter and 46 millimetres from lug to lug. The case is 9.75 millimetres thick excluding the domed sapphire crystal and offers a water resistance of 300 metres. In other words it is a compact diver's watch by today's measures – especially in comparison with many professionally inspired models that are approaching or passing 45 millimetres. The shapes are typical of the Navygraf family, with angular lugs, integrated crown protection and a unidirectional rotating ring. But the dial and the rotating ring insert in forged carbon fibre give the Barracuda a considerably more modern and more tactical expression. The compressed carbon fibres create a marbled and irregular pattern that varies between different examples. Every dial thereby gets a to some extent unique appearance. The first 20 minutes on the rotating ring are marked in a strong red. That is meant to tie in to the synchronisation procedures that are used aboard submarines to coordinate various timed operations.
The red colour returns on the large arrow-shaped minute hand and in the Barracuda text at six o'clock. The applied indexes and the other hands are filled with Super-LumiNova for good legibility in the dark. On the back the submarine theme continues.
Instead of an ordinary clear sapphire crystal, Yema has fitted a red-tinted crystal. The inspiration comes from the red lighting that is used inside submarines during night-time operations. Red light makes it possible to read instruments while the crew's night vision is to a greater extent preserved. Behind the red crystal sits Yema's calibre CMM.20, developed together with the movement constructor Olivier Mory. The movement is constructed and assembled in Morteau in France, while the components are made in France and nearby parts of Switzerland.
A micro-rotor in tungsten handles the automatic winding. Since the rotor is built into the level of the movement itself instead of being placed on top of it, the construction can be made thinner without the automatic function disappearing.

To mark the Marine Nationale's 400th anniversary, YEMA dresses its diver's watch Navygraf in warm IP bronze and a deep navy blue colour scale. The 39 mm case, with vertically brushed sides and polished chamfers along the lugs, combines the bronze's unmistakable warmth with the sea's cool authority. With a water resistance of 200 metres and a unidirectional diver's ring, this is a genuine tool watch that carries several centuries of history. The radially toned dial shifts from a light, almost self-luminous blue in the middle to close to midnight blue along the outer edge – like the sea viewed from a ship's deck at dusk. The glossy, IP bronze coloured hour markers are filled with white Super-LumiNova BGW9 and lie level with their bronze surrounds. Under the YEMA Navygraf signature you find the text ”MARINE NATIONALE SINCE 1626”, printed in sharp white. All the hands have a glossy IP bronze finish. The hour and minute hands are filled with white BGW9, at the same height as the bronze frames, which creates an even and coherent glow in the dark.

The 39 mm case in IP bronze is 9.75 mm thick and has a strap width of 19 mm. It combines vertically brushed surfaces with highly polished chamfers along the lugs. Over the toned dial arches a 2.20 mm thick K1 mineral crystal, which catches the light like a ship's porthole.

The screwed crown in glossy IP bronze is stamped with YEMA's polished logotype and contributes to the watch's water resistance of 200 metres.

Inside the watch works the quartz-driven Seiko VH31 movement, which drives a seconds hand with a sweeping movement. It unites the quartz movement's precision and ease of use with the smooth movement that is normally associated with a mechanical watch.

The Yema Navygraf Barracuda CMM.20 is limited to 400 examples and costs 2 249 euro on a NATO strap or 2 499 euro on a steel bracelet.
Quick facts: a 39 millimetre steel case, a dial and rotating ring insert in forged carbon fibre, 300 metres of water resistance, the automatic calibre CMM.20 with a micro-rotor, 70 hours of power reserve and a limited edition of 400 examples. The quartz watch in bronze is not limited and costs 499 euro.