Horological Meandering

Blancpain Basel 2011 - What to make out of this? Here we offer our conclusion!

 

To be honest, as Blancpain connoisseurs we are a bit worried about the latest developments of the brand. We are still interested in what is coming as for both of us Blancpain represents an important milestone in our horological upbringing, and we have/had the pleasure of owning several of their watches. The length and intensity of this article testifies for our affection with the brand.

Looking at the novelties of the past years, we identified the following trends with Blancpain:

1. A rather uninspired introduction/mix of design elements took place across all collections, e.g. the widespread introduction of guilloched dials (isn’t that Breguet?), which have no compelling history with the brand.
2. The new movements, based on the landmark piece Cal. 13R0, were also introduced in all collections. While these are excellent constructions with a proven track record in terms of timekeeping and robustness, they do not come without consequences:
3. Their introduction in the Villeret line effectively means the demise of the ‘ultra-flat’ watches, which is (was?!) a core value of the collection.
4. The new movements show a techno-affine instead of artistry-enabled approach. While finishing is beautiful on the first view, it has been economised in terms of design complexity, multitude & variety of surfaces requiring finishing etc.
5. The various collections are no longer clearly differentiated. As outlined in this article, the former distinction in terms of robust/refined, aesthetic elements, complications, size is no longer followed.
6. There is no consistency and long-term follow-up in marketing efforts, partnerships etc.

The tragedy is that we cannot blame the individual watches, which are great offerings. It is the overall picture that is disturbing. For the observer it is increasingly difficult to decipher the current philosophy/strategy behind the brand. Instead, there seems to be a lot of trial and error approaches followed. It appears to us that particularly the Villeret line, the nucleus and core of the Blancpain brand, suffers most.

Blancpain was such a gem, a small brand with a clear philosophy that had all the ingredients of an admired collector’s brand. It has been watered down over the years tremendously so that we fear that is soon reaches the state of a ‘Jack of all trades’ brand. If we look at some competitors in Switzerland and Germany it is really saddening for us to realise this, having in mid what could have been accomplished.

On top of this comes the recent significant price increases, but that is another topic…

But we guess that as long as the sales figures are good, no one really cares. A pity and a big risk for the brand itself – in the long term!

We hopy you enjoyed this rather challenging and comprehensive report. We promise twice: (i) we will continue our series, and (ii) th next installment (Part III) will be more digestible!

Cheers so far,
Oliver & Magnus

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