Blancpain

Blancpain's history begins in 1735, when Jehan-Jacques Blancpain registered as a watchmaker in Villeret, in the Bernese Jura; the firm remained in the family until 1932 and is often described as the oldest watch brand still in existence. Its best-known watch is the Fifty Fathoms, a diver's watch developed in the early 1950s with the French Navy's combat swimmers: a locking rotating bezel, a black dial with luminous markers and an automatic movement.

Absorbed into SSIH in 1961, the name was bought in 1983 by Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet and relaunched on strictly mechanical lines, a position the brand has kept since. The Swatch Group, SSIH's successor, acquired the company in 1992 and moved it to Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux. Current collections include Villeret, Fifty Fathoms and Bathyscaphe, Air Command and Ladybird; the 1735 Grande Complication of 1991 combined a tourbillon, minute repeater, perpetual calendar and split-seconds chronograph.