Horological Meandering

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Blancpain Basel 2011 - the Villeret Collection!

The Villeret line received significant attention this year. The most prominent are the Ref. 6660 & 6661, called Demi Fuseau Horaire, as the successor of the 6260 – new movements, new dial and bigger case:



The movement offers an interesting (and very practical) refinement: Ironically, Marcus Hanke mentioned in his presentation of Patek novelties that “generations of watchmakers used the capital of Venezuela as reference for the time zone UTC -4. Until 2007, when president Chavez suddenly decided to relocate the whole nation by half an hour, between two time zones. For manufacturers of world time watches, this resulted in a problem, of course”.

Not so for Blancpain as both references allow for 30min differences between home and local time. The functions are entirely controlled by the crown, whereby a pusher in the crown axis switches the function between home time and local time. It acts on a column wheel, making the operation very smooth.

Ref. 6660 comes in steel with a white dial in a 40mm case. Its movement is based upon the Piguet 1150 with 4 days of power reserve (CHF 16’000).





The 6661, in contrast, offers 8 days autonomy and is based on the Cal. 13R8. The white gold case has 42mm, the dial is Grand Feu enamel, with a price to match: CHF 41’500. And alternative is the red gold version with opaline, guilloched dial for the same price.








The two watches have entirely different personalities, whereby we think that the smaller version has a more harmonious dial layout, the indications make better use of the available space; the larger suffers from the huge empty section on the bottom left.



There is also a version with incorrectly called a Half Hunter (Ref. 6665, CHF 27’900); it has a hinged case back. Unfortunately, we were not able to examine it.

Ref. 6685, the Monopusher Chronograph with Complete Calendar, shown here with some of the former members of the family (take a note of the new elegant crown compared to the older monopusher!)...



It’s essentially last year’s Fifty Fathoms Calendar Chronograph in a 40mm Villeret case in monopusher version, thus having the correctors under the lugs. It’s a bit thick for the Villeret line and boosts lots of details (CHF 19’900 in steel, CHF 30’900 in red gold):






Ref. 6615 Grande Decoration with the lovely caliber 15, which was used for Blancpain pocket watches in the past, by other manufacturers including Daniel Roth, Svend Andersen or Rolex, and currently in a wristwatch from Breguet (Ref. 5967; introduced last year; 41mm):





It’s a unique watch only available through the Blancpain Boutiques and individually adorned in Blancpain’s ateliers. Its price is CHF 53’000!

A pity that there was no time to take a pic!

Ref. 6670 is a new complication for Blancpain, an Annual Calendar GMT. It represents the classical approach to such complications, emphasisin on mechanically instead of theoretical (e.g. MIH watch, Ochs und Junior) complexity. It’s coupled with a GMT function and can be set back and forth even across a date change.




Once again we see a useful application of the correctors under the lugs:



The guilloched dial shows considerable detail. Price is CHF 37’500 in either white of red gold.



We can’t help but the overall layout strings some bells…



Blancpain is known for its Complete Calendar watches with Moonphase. Recently, a number of mouth-watering versions were presented:



The lovely Ref. 6639 Complete Calendar with Moon Phase sports a bigger case (40mm), has a new developed movement with 8 days power reserve, an absolutely gorgeous black Grand Feu enamel dial.





It comes limited to 88 pieces at a self-confident price of CHF 59'300.



Ref. 6638 Equation Marchante – compared to its predecessors, with some new design elements …







… and the technical improvement of all correctors being under the lugs…



…and even on the case side:




88 pieces in platinum (CHF 180'000) and 188 in red gold (CHF 160'000).

Lastly, a few design/dial updates:
Ref. 6651, Ultraflat Automatic with guilloched dial (CHF 18'800):





Ref. 6653, Retrograde Seconds with guilloched dial (CHF 20'500):




Two Ultraflat Handwound Watches with Power Reserve Indication were presented, the Ref. 6606 with a black guilloched dial and housing an old buddy, the 4-day movement Cal. 1106, now in a modified version with much nicer bridge layout (not anymore looking like an automatic movement with the rotor removed; CHF 18'600)…






… and the Ref. 6614 featuring a Grand Feu enamel dial and driven by the Cal. 13R1 with twice the autonomy and almost double the price (giving your more power reserve/CHF, is this now a bargain? Price is CHF 32'200):




Take a look at the sumptuous new Villeret crown:


The Cal. 13R1:



Oli & Magnus:
The Villeret is synonymous with the iconic Blancpain since the 1980s and was the foundation of ‘modern’ Blancpain’s success, and therefore we were much delighted to learn that Blancpain focused on this collection this year.

Re: Ref. 6615 Grande Decoration: As much as we like the Cal. 15 movement for its layout, we are not sure about the engraving, but that is a question of personal preferences. The watch itself shows lots of DNA from Blancpain, something we like a lot. Case - 45mm could be an issue and we would prefer 41mm, which is possible (Breguet 5967!):



The Ref. 6639 Complete Calender with Moon Phase with the adorable black enamel dial is one of our personal favourites from the current collection and it reminds on the Ref. 6263 Anniversary from 2003 and the Ref. 6263B from the Apotheosis Temporis set from 2005 – all of them in platinum.





The upgrade of Equation Marchante Ref. 6638 was successful, aesthetically and technically, but we are not sure whether the price ‘adjustment’ will turn out equally successful. The first version from 2004 is still our favourite one.





Likewise, the handwound Ref. 6614 looks adorable, and the new Annual Calendar Ref. 6670 continues Blancpain’s path of true innovation.







The remaining watches represent small (welcome) updates to existing offerings.



We are a bit at a loss what Blancpain would like to tell us with the Ref. 6685 Monopusher Chronograph with Complete Calendar, and the Ref. 6670 Demi Fuseau Horaire. The dials looks crowded and lack the elegant refinement Blancpain is known for. Can they be put in the Mickey Mouse corner of Blancpain (if such exists)?

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