Perhaps your frequent mispronunciations shouldn't be seen as a calling card. For a couple of dudes who try to push the idea that they work with brands and are great with marketing, it's a bad look when you can't even get brand names and famous historical figures right @@TheoandHarris
I like how Michael is making the excuse that he can’t pronounce names and that’s why he is butchering the famous Frenchman’s name. Respectfully, this is clearly just him being ignorant and or uncultured. He should know this name.
"To penetrate to astonishing depths..." When Michael paused briefly to say "me too" I literally had coffee come out of my nose...perfect comedic timing!
This was really good Michael. I read the original article without looking at the comments and assumed Jose Perez was right. As you showed, the situation is murkier than he described it to be.
That Perez is a crook who got his start in the watch world by cobbling together & selling fake Panerai during its heyday & early boom. How else is he so adept at spotting fakes & frakens? It takes a crook to spot the work of other crooks. Go google his murky & sordid past.
To me it's all marketing speak. The Submariner isn't even the first watch that looked like a Submariner, that was the Turn-O-Graph 6202. So you don't even need to say that FF came out after the Submariner, since the Turn-O-Graph was around before then (and maybe there were a bunch of other watches that looked like it too but weren't called "dive watches"). Why do we even put any significance on the watches that came out in 1953? They weren't the first with water resistance, they weren't the first with rotating bezels, and they don't match today's dive watch standards. It's literally just that they called themselves dive watches, which is just marketing.
I think you nailed the analysis, Michael. I also think Perezscope has an axe to grind, and was rather selective in his inclusion of facts about Blancpain.
@@Dr_Demographics_IEit’s a double edged sword on the internet - call it out before someone does and make people notice OR get called a stupid idiot that doesn’t know what an iron is by 98 people
I don't know when Rolex's unidirectional bezel apeared but my 1969 model 5513 has a friction bidirectional bezel. I've had this thing from new and yes it was used for diving.
The SeaDweller first had the unidirectional bezel when it went off patent and Rolex could use it, I think the first Submariner to have it was around 1990. Rolex’s first unidirectional on the Sea Dweller (early 4000 ft one, mid 80s) wasn’t very good, and mine became a two way moving bezel after about 5 dives, but the friction was sufficient to keep it in place. Finally had it fixed in 2002. The one way bezel never seemed that important; indeed used a GMT before I got the SeaDweller.
What smells to me in this story - had Rolex really made the first dive watch (commercially available), and had any evidence of it, how on earth have they never at least claimed it through their marketing, or followed up by legal actions against BP?
For him to attack the semantics of the word "introduced" is ridiculous. He should then attack Rolex with the same level of vigor when they say the DeepSea Challenge is (capable) of the deepest dive vs in Omega case with the Ultradeep (achieved) and holds the record for deepest dive with a watch.
Actually Swatch group is the king of dodgy marketing. Just look at the way they push Omega as the Bond watch in a futile attempt to airbrush Rolex out of the picture
@@goldencalf5144 Any company can pay for that partnership with the bond movies. It's silly to think it's to attempt to replace Rolex. To me it's smart marketing. No different than Rolex paying for the Daytona 500 race advertising or Wimbledon tennis tournaments.
Your description of the Horological Society of NY meetings is so funny/spot on! I almost fell off my chair from laughing. 🤣Which is why love their lectures btw...
Dials with triangles, rectangles, etc, Rolex beat BP to the punch, using them in the Zerographe in 1937, and then in the Panerai that Rolex designed and built in the ‘40s, and then the Turnographe. The Turnographe was also already capable of 100m WR, before the FF’s 90something-meter WR, and the Zerographe featured a rotating bezel more than a decade before the FF…that being said, it was neither a locking bezel nor a dive bezel. I agree with the general sentiment in that unless BP corroborates specifics this debate will never end…but it honestly matters little at this point - Rolex produces the most bullet-proof and capable watches of the two in my opinion.
Incorrect. Invicta was the first watch born to dare. It's in the horological society's annual journal published in 19 dickety 2. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT! Invicta pro diver came out in the 1920's and is in fact the first sub.
@@A_Dude_And_His_Watch78 oh shoot you are totally right. I meant to put Tudor was the first “man made” company born to dare. Everyone knows Invicta was created by celestial beings with far superior daringness.
Aqua Lung co-branded watches came much later, around 1957/58. The reason Spirotechnique, now Aqua Lung, put the French Navy in touch with Jean-Jacques Fiechter is because they knew him from scuba diving in the South of France and that he was the director of a watch company. Btw, in the meantime we have found evidence that the first Rolex Submariner prototype was created in 1951.
Good analysis. This quibbling over the definition of "launch" suggests he doesn't have a watertight case. I would just add that patent applications are not inexpensive, especially if Blancpain was a relatively small underdog watchmaking house. For a juggernaut, spending a fortune filing scores of frivolous patents is much less of a financial burden. Just think of Apple and Samsung. I think you are right that it's no coincidence these 3 models were produced around the same time. (While I don't accept his definition of launch, I'm avoiding it here so as to avoid misunderstanding.) When a military unit or any organisation acquires equipment, it's not uncommon to approach several providers with the same specifications. Not sure if things were done that way back in those halcyon days but it could have been. Nowadays, everyone is paranoid, requiring non-disclosure agreements, tenders, RFPs and the like but back then things were probably done with a handshake and the suppliers giving their word not to blab.
31:49 on the German version of Blancpain‘s website they state that the Fifty Fathoms was „introduced in the market in 1953“ . That is consistent with how Perezcope defined „launch“.
Let's compare this with the launch of the iPhone... The first iPhone was announced by Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007. After the announcement, the iPhone was available for sale later that year on June 29, 2007. So, there was a gap of about six months between the announcement and the actual availability for purchase. Make your own conclusion.
Blancpain definitely first. Whole watch community agrees. It is over 70 years and rolex has said nothing. If true they would have immediately made the claim and used it massively in marketing campaigns since the 50s
Omega made the first watch that could be submerged in water. It didn't have a 60 minute bezel so that's why you can't call it a dive watch, I guess, but it was "waterproof" rectangular shaped, and developed in the late 30s, I think it was.
Not the first time Rolex has been owned. Sub playing second fiddle to Fifty Fathoms, Daytona "Cosmograph" getting snubbed by NASA for the Speedy, Explorer not being created for/or actually worn on Everest trek, etc. Rolex fanboys should accept that in the modern age... the Rolex brand leans more on hype than actual horological pedigree.
A product launch does not necessarily mean it is available at that time. Our company launches products that only show up a year later. It just means this is when the marketing starts and early samples are shown at trade shows etc. Sometimes also orders are taken shortly after.
The U.S. Navy called for Tenders for a Dive Watch and it was that tender document which described the design element of the markers. The circle and batten markers you see on the Submariner and Fifty Fathoms. It was the Navy’s design and not Rolex or Blanc Pain. That’s my understanding. There is a document I’ve seen and it shows all the placements and measurements. 😊
Hi Mike, it could also be that Aqualung knew of Blancpain through JJ Fiechter (Who ran Blancpain with his aunt), because he was an avid diver and may have purchased diving gear from them before.
Blancpain watches were originally sold in dive shops not watch shops. So they were not in the mainstream watch market in 1953 but I believe it did exist before the Rolex Submariner.
Actually my extensive research was in 1953 they began the design of the Fifty Fathoms was designed for the Navy Diver not necessarily saying they actually produced any in 1953. Now let's talk about the Bulova first produced the MIL-SHIPS prototype in May 1957 to I have heard to compete with the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. They made 12 prototypes and in 1959 they abruptly dropped it.
It's kind of stupid how we're quibbling over one year. They were probably all doing corporate espionage on one another anyway. Stealing designs, etc. I bet many watches were developed at the same time.
great video! What Blancpain should do is release primary sources that can “prove” the Fifty Fathoms status as the “first.” Anything besides trademarks and patents: Photographs, testing documentation, mechanical drawings/drafts, journals, artifacts/prototypes (a watch!).... Otherwise it’s all conjecture.
I get the arguments but as far as I know Omega has long publicised that their 1932 Omega Marine was the first commercially available 'dive' watch. I'd also like to chime in on the butchering of the pronunciations of the late Commander Jacques Cousteau, for many of us he was quite the legend and looking up and finding out how to correctly pronounce his name would have been the proper thing to do.
Interesting, I think we don’t we realize the context of the watch industry and how confidential the dive watch markets were. Moreover, nothing contradicts that the watch didn’t exist in 1953 (would be great however to see one)… my understanding was Aqualung and Spirotechnique were companies created by Jacques Cousteau to distribute diving products in Europe and the US. Aqualung was a dive equipment distributor not a watch maker.
Very interesting! I've always been told that The Fifty Fathoms was first and that Rolex jumped on the bandwagon and put the label of Submariner on their Turn-O-Graph.
The whole concept is about the difference between knowing and believing. It is super hard to prove that there is no Santa… there is no prove that he exists, but that doesn’t prove his nonexistence… So based on facts it seems like the sub outdates the fathom… That is what he is referring to. He hasn’t proven that there has been no prototype or small batch version of the fifty fathoms but there is also no real evidence of the opposite. So the scientific approach would favor the submariner
Well, hold on, if Blancpain "launched" the fifty fathoms from the moment it was produced and not sold, the same would be true for the sub - which presumably would have been made and tested prior it's LAUNCH in 1953.
It's amazing how many watch history detectives can appear on various social media channels. To be honest, who cares which watch was the first? These kind of articles and videos are the perfect marketing for all the brands. It gives the products such a visibility, that for the sales it doesn't matter, what's the outcome of the story. Blancpain lately gets so much press, that the awareness of the brand must skyrocket. If you were deciding between Rolex Submariner, Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Zodiac Seewolf, would you really decide just because it was the "first modern dive watch"?
That Perez is a crook who got his start in the watch world by cobbling together & selling fake Panerai during its heyday & early boom. How else is he so adept at spotting fakes & frakens? It takes a crook to spot the work of other crooks. Go google his murky & sordid past.
Did zero research beyond reading the article and some comment sections, butchered names that he could have googled, and it was still better than anything with Christian in it.
Question: isn't there an original "aqualung" floating around somewhere, with a date or serial number? Surely some old French chap has one lying around in a cupboard somewhere?
I was attending a discussion with some people from Blancpain, and according to their storyteliing as these watches were toolwatches, most of them were simply disposed once newer/better spec'd watches were made available. Back the days nobody looked at them as some tools that could gain value over time, it was quite the opposite. But yeah, at least one should/could exist somewhere, I agree.
Rolex could've sued Blancpain ages ago (maybe they had or tried to) if it was the Sub that debuted earlier than the Fifty Fathoms and used it as their marketing. As we all know, Rolex wouldn't miss any marketing chances.
I actually read Perezcope's article, straight away it smelled of a marketing stunt by Rolex to shift the narrative in their favor. And for a time it worked, there were fanboys and sales staff lapping it up.
Invicta pro diver came out in the 1920's and is in fact the first sub. It's in the horological society's annual journal published in 19 dickety 2. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!
Blancpain/ Swatch have made headlines so it should help sell that piece of plastic for £400 . I'm glad you mentioned Zodiac sea wolf, for just over a thousand pounds your getting a great watch with heritage. Enjoyed the video, thank you
Don't understand this talk about competition. Rolex has 29% of the Swiss watch market. Rolex competes with Rolex. Blancpain makes great watches but, there is no competition. I really do enjoy you content. Would love to know more about your watch collections and your thoughts on why you love those watches. Cheers,
Seems like Perezscope does have his own little agenda on his page with specific brands he hate. No doubtr he'll expose anyone, but he puts in extra effort for brands he doesn't like for his personal opinion
Great analysis - thank you! Perezcope's obvious bias in definitions, word choice and tone in that article already made it impossible to take his arguments seriously. The article discredits itself with its overt hostility and aggression toward certain actors over a topic as ultimately unimportant as this. Interesting saga nonetheless.
I’m surprised this is even grey, I would have thought that there are still people alive that can state facts about this. Rolex have always been sneaky with their marketing. It could be around the first commercial available. But what about non commercially available.
Fiechter and the French Navy war hero are on record claiming it happened in 1953 - and they are first hand witnesses. But he has chosen not to believe them.
Blancpains founder owns the patents for the modern dive watch. Perezcope is just peddling pro Rolex narrative for personal financial reasons. This isn’t even debatable. Patent was filed and awarded to him and if you know ANYTHING of French corporate espionage history, it’s pretty easy guess that they got their hands on the design.
Patents were discussed. People claim they filed AFTER they went into production . People seem to just want to believe they claimed patent pending before they ever actually filed, which there is no evidence that anyone ever did this. All BP has is corporate stories, with zero to actually back them. No documentation, no pictures, no watches discovered.
That Perez is a crook who got his start in the watch world by cobbling together & selling fake Panerai during its heyday & early boom. How else is he so adept at spotting fakes & frakens? It takes a crook to spot the work of other crooks. Go google his murky & sordid past.
Rolex is elite liars of corporate stories… their entire Explorer history is made up. Aqua lung contracted BP for French navy.. that’s well known way before Rolex copied it
Blancpain definitely was the first shown dive watch in the public eye at the 1953 Basel watch fair, Rolex was not until the following year. Whomever beat who to market first is possibly up for discussion here. Rolex also didn’t introduce a unidirectional bezel until the 1970’s, Fifty Fathom original watch was unidirectional. The Fifty Fathoms was not sold in jewelry stores for a while, was sold through dive shops, surf shops and military use. Love Rolex but this guy is too hard core Rolex trying to rewrite history. Three companies were in the race for the first dive watch, they all were shown first within a few months of each other. As someone who dives, a unidirectional bezel is very important as well as good lumen. I do not own a Fifty Fathoms since it’s too big for my wrist at 45mm and do own two subs but I don’t think rewriting history since one watch is much more popular then another. I think that’s why Rolex does not make the claim.
Yeah, the evidence presented in perezcope article would NOT hold up in court. He makes many very layman's logical jumps/connections which could easily be debunked.
Christian should go away more often. - love the crazy professor vibe. Rolex had to apologise to Smiths about lying about the Everest accent. 😮 Rolex are great watches, but they are a marketing company first. Watchmaker second. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
The Submariner and the 50 fathoms are both one of the best. I don't care about any of this argument over who was first or better. But if you do, carry on. Im out.
Submariner is the best . The best homage ever. Period. First Dive Watch- Seamaster Omega (first version is a reverso like watch with waterproof casing)-1933 1952- blancpain Exclusive Navy release watch diver watch 1954-Rolex first submariner. Commercialized the design. Wins the game 1955-Blancpain started the commercial release of the watch from military exclusive watches. It doesn’t need a lawyer to know. Rolex won the war by default win by publicity. The buried blancpain proofs by time and resources.
I know this is an old video but it seems like Perezscope needs to learn that it is considered a logical fallacy when one uses a lack of evidence to support point A, as evidence to support point B.
New York horological Society speech the expert said the Director of marketing for Rolex was on the boat when the divers had on the 50 fathoms. It was definitely before the Rolex. Old records and military records show this to be true. Listen to that speech it’s on TH-cam and on the Internet.
I can't believe he's mutilating a name like Jacques Cousteau. It's not pronounced "Jack-ez Costa", it's "Jock Coostow".
u must be new to the channel
@@TheoandHarris Most people don't know this, but he went by "Jackie Coosie" to his friends.
Perhaps your frequent mispronunciations shouldn't be seen as a calling card. For a couple of dudes who try to push the idea that they work with brands and are great with marketing, it's a bad look when you can't even get brand names and famous historical figures right @@TheoandHarris
guys the only names i can pronounce correctly is mine and kinda Christian’s
I like how Michael is making the excuse that he can’t pronounce names and that’s why he is butchering the famous Frenchman’s name. Respectfully, this is clearly just him being ignorant and or uncultured. He should know this name.
"To penetrate to astonishing depths..." When Michael paused briefly to say "me too" I literally had coffee come out of my nose...perfect comedic timing!
This was really good Michael. I read the original article without looking at the comments and assumed Jose Perez was right. As you showed, the situation is murkier than he described it to be.
That Perez is a crook who got his start in the watch world by cobbling together & selling fake Panerai during its heyday & early boom.
How else is he so adept at spotting fakes & frakens?
It takes a crook to spot the work of other crooks.
Go google his murky & sordid past.
To me it's all marketing speak. The Submariner isn't even the first watch that looked like a Submariner, that was the Turn-O-Graph 6202. So you don't even need to say that FF came out after the Submariner, since the Turn-O-Graph was around before then (and maybe there were a bunch of other watches that looked like it too but weren't called "dive watches"). Why do we even put any significance on the watches that came out in 1953? They weren't the first with water resistance, they weren't the first with rotating bezels, and they don't match today's dive watch standards. It's literally just that they called themselves dive watches, which is just marketing.
I think you nailed the analysis, Michael. I also think Perezscope has an axe to grind, and was rather selective in his inclusion of facts about Blancpain.
nice to see Theo on the spotlight this episode!!!
Lol that's not his name
@@ChrisKellyPrime This is what they call a joke in the show biz baby
Thought that was Harris?
@@leemurovec24didn’t you hear? Harris is off diving in Italy while Theo waxes poetic about the use of nickel on watch hands post-1952
And high as ballz
This was excellent! Thank you for putting the time in.
Yes, I am very upset at how wrinkly my shirt is. Looked okay in the mirror. Hate when that happens.
😢
I didn't notice it until I read this comment and now it's all I can see
@@Dr_Demographics_IEit’s a double edged sword on the internet - call it out before someone does and make people notice OR get called a stupid idiot that doesn’t know what an iron is by 98 people
I don't know when Rolex's unidirectional bezel apeared but my 1969 model 5513 has a friction bidirectional bezel. I've had this thing from new and yes it was used for diving.
The SeaDweller first had the unidirectional bezel when it went off patent and Rolex could use it, I think the first Submariner to have it was around 1990. Rolex’s first unidirectional on the Sea Dweller (early 4000 ft one, mid 80s) wasn’t very good, and mine became a two way moving bezel after about 5 dives, but the friction was sufficient to keep it in place. Finally had it fixed in 2002. The one way bezel never seemed that important; indeed used a GMT before I got the SeaDweller.
What smells to me in this story - had Rolex really made the first dive watch (commercially available), and had any evidence of it, how on earth have they never at least claimed it through their marketing, or followed up by legal actions against BP?
Yeah it seems like Rolex, “the marketing king” would want to capitalize on the fact the were the first modern dive watch if it were true. 😊
For him to attack the semantics of the word "introduced" is ridiculous. He should then attack Rolex with the same level of vigor when they say the DeepSea Challenge is (capable) of the deepest dive vs in Omega case with the Ultradeep (achieved) and holds the record for deepest dive with a watch.
@@NKNFAIRagreed Rolex are never coy about implying they are the first or the best at something lol.
Actually Swatch group is the king of dodgy marketing. Just look at the way they push Omega as the Bond watch in a futile attempt to airbrush Rolex out of the picture
@@goldencalf5144 Any company can pay for that partnership with the bond movies. It's silly to think it's to attempt to replace Rolex. To me it's smart marketing. No different than Rolex paying for the Daytona 500 race advertising or Wimbledon tennis tournaments.
When did the zodiac sea wolf come out? Wasn't that also 1953?
Thank you. I'm not a Zodiac fan boy, but it irks me that Zodiac's history gets sweeped under the rug
The Sea Wolf was presented at the Basel Watch Fair in 1958.
@@perezcope you're saying their story is a lie, too?
5 years later in Basel
Your description of the Horological Society of NY meetings is so funny/spot on! I almost fell off my chair from laughing. 🤣Which is why love their lectures btw...
Dials with triangles, rectangles, etc, Rolex beat BP to the punch, using them in the Zerographe in 1937, and then in the Panerai that Rolex designed and built in the ‘40s, and then the Turnographe. The Turnographe was also already capable of 100m WR, before the FF’s 90something-meter WR, and the Zerographe featured a rotating bezel more than a decade before the FF…that being said, it was neither a locking bezel nor a dive bezel. I agree with the general sentiment in that unless BP corroborates specifics this debate will never end…but it honestly matters little at this point - Rolex produces the most bullet-proof and capable watches of the two in my opinion.
Very true; but those on the FF hype don't want to admit it. Anyway, in the end it's just whatever anyone likes; that simple.
All this arguing is tearing us apart. Can’t we focus on something that is irrefutable? Like the fact that Tudor was the first company born to dare?
Incorrect. Invicta was the first watch born to dare. It's in the horological society's annual journal published in 19 dickety 2. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT! Invicta pro diver came out in the 1920's and is in fact the first sub.
Hahahaha😂. Tudor was born to dare, but still remains in live to bore phase.
@@A_Dude_And_His_Watch78 oh shoot you are totally right. I meant to put Tudor was the first “man made” company born to dare. Everyone knows Invicta was created by celestial beings with far superior daringness.
Aqua Lung co-branded watches came much later, around 1957/58. The reason Spirotechnique, now Aqua Lung, put the French Navy in touch with Jean-Jacques Fiechter is because they knew him from scuba diving in the South of France and that he was the director of a watch company. Btw, in the meantime we have found evidence that the first Rolex Submariner prototype was created in 1951.
My bad on that Aqualung/Spirotechnique mix up! Saw that evidence on your story, crazy stuff
Just like the Explorer never made it to the top of Everest. Marketing 🤷🏻♂️
The problem with Blancpain is that it's white bread.
this is the title of our next video
@@TheoandHarris: "bet"
For its price it must be artisanal white bread.🙂
Do you mean they’re basic?
🤦🙄smh
Good analysis. This quibbling over the definition of "launch" suggests he doesn't have a watertight case. I would just add that patent applications are not inexpensive, especially if Blancpain was a relatively small underdog watchmaking house. For a juggernaut, spending a fortune filing scores of frivolous patents is much less of a financial burden. Just think of Apple and Samsung.
I think you are right that it's no coincidence these 3 models were produced around the same time. (While I don't accept his definition of launch, I'm avoiding it here so as to avoid misunderstanding.) When a military unit or any organisation acquires equipment, it's not uncommon to approach several providers with the same specifications. Not sure if things were done that way back in those halcyon days but it could have been. Nowadays, everyone is paranoid, requiring non-disclosure agreements, tenders, RFPs and the like but back then things were probably done with a handshake and the suppliers giving their word not to blab.
31:49 on the German version of Blancpain‘s website they state that the Fifty Fathoms was „introduced in the market in 1953“ . That is consistent with how Perezcope defined „launch“.
Let's compare this with the launch of the iPhone... The first iPhone was announced by Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007. After the announcement, the iPhone was available for sale later that year on June 29, 2007. So, there was a gap of about six months between the announcement and the actual availability for purchase. Make your own conclusion.
Blancpain definitely first. Whole watch community agrees. It is over 70 years and rolex has said nothing. If true they would have immediately made the claim and used it massively in marketing campaigns since the 50s
We appreciate you penetrating this story to astonishing depths.
Would appreciate if he pronounced Cousteau's name correctly. How can a video about dive watch origins butcher the name of a legendary diver.
Very In depth and well researched, Michael!
Omega made the first watch that could be submerged in water. It didn't have a 60 minute bezel so that's why you can't call it a dive watch, I guess, but it was "waterproof" rectangular shaped, and developed in the late 30s, I think it was.
The Omega Marine
Not the first time Rolex has been owned. Sub playing second fiddle to Fifty Fathoms, Daytona "Cosmograph" getting snubbed by NASA for the Speedy, Explorer not being created for/or actually worn on Everest trek, etc. Rolex fanboys should accept that in the modern age... the Rolex brand leans more on hype than actual horological pedigree.
Thank you very much for your efforts to ensure timely wristwatch checks! It's a distracting peeve when TH-camrs forget job #1! 🙏
Battles are dramatic. Drama demands attention. Attention is good marketing...
A product launch does not necessarily mean it is available at that time. Our company launches products that only show up a year later. It just means this is when the marketing starts and early samples are shown at trade shows etc. Sometimes also orders are taken shortly after.
I LOVE these kinds of videos I truly learn so much. Thank you for sharing always amazing educational entertaining content❤
The U.S. Navy called for Tenders for a Dive Watch and it was that tender document which described the design element of the markers. The circle and batten markers you see on the Submariner and Fifty Fathoms. It was the Navy’s design and not Rolex or Blanc Pain. That’s my understanding. There is a document I’ve seen and it shows all the placements and measurements. 😊
Top Marks young man. What an entertaining, well researched and well delivered piece.
I wish a detailed and lengthy dive watch video would pronounce Jacques correctly. Omg
Hi Mike, it could also be that Aqualung knew of Blancpain through JJ Fiechter (Who ran Blancpain with his aunt), because he was an avid diver and may have purchased diving gear from them before.
Blancpain watches were originally sold in dive shops not watch shops. So they were not in the mainstream watch market in 1953 but I believe it did exist before the Rolex Submariner.
Actually my extensive research was in 1953 they began the design of the Fifty Fathoms was designed for the Navy Diver not necessarily saying they actually produced any in 1953. Now let's talk about the Bulova first produced the MIL-SHIPS prototype in May 1957 to I have heard to compete with the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. They made 12 prototypes and in 1959 they abruptly dropped it.
Hello Theo, may i ask whats the brand and model of your watch?? i liked it so much!!!
Great video Michael🔥🔥🔥
What an entertaining & informative video. Thanks Michael.
It's kind of stupid how we're quibbling over one year. They were probably all doing corporate espionage on one another anyway. Stealing designs, etc. I bet many watches were developed at the same time.
Very informative - thank you 👍
great video! What Blancpain should do is release primary sources that can “prove” the Fifty Fathoms status as the “first.” Anything besides trademarks and patents: Photographs, testing documentation, mechanical drawings/drafts, journals, artifacts/prototypes (a watch!).... Otherwise it’s all conjecture.
I get the arguments but as far as I know Omega has long publicised that their 1932 Omega Marine was the first commercially available 'dive' watch. I'd also like to chime in on the butchering of the pronunciations of the late Commander Jacques Cousteau, for many of us he was quite the legend and looking up and finding out how to correctly pronounce his name would have been the proper thing to do.
So much drama coming from that article. Lol. Thanks for breaking this down! I agree with your takes.
Interesting, I think we don’t we realize the context of the watch industry and how confidential the dive watch markets were. Moreover, nothing contradicts that the watch didn’t exist in 1953 (would be great however to see one)… my understanding was Aqualung and Spirotechnique were companies created by Jacques Cousteau to distribute diving products in Europe and the US. Aqualung was a dive equipment distributor not a watch maker.
Ah -- I may have messed up the Spirotechnique/Aqualung understanding, apologies!
Very interesting! I've always been told that The Fifty Fathoms was first and that Rolex jumped on the bandwagon and put the label of Submariner on their Turn-O-Graph.
The "Me too" comment was one of the best interludes to a video I have seen (I'm obviously too immature)
I like a lot of Perezcope’s articles. On this subject, though, I’d put my money on Jeffrey Kingston.
The whole concept is about the difference between knowing and believing. It is super hard to prove that there is no Santa… there is no prove that he exists, but that doesn’t prove his nonexistence…
So based on facts it seems like the sub outdates the fathom…
That is what he is referring to.
He hasn’t proven that there has been no prototype or small batch version of the fifty fathoms but there is also no real evidence of the opposite.
So the scientific approach would favor the submariner
Well, hold on, if Blancpain "launched" the fifty fathoms from the moment it was produced and not sold, the same would be true for the sub - which presumably would have been made and tested prior it's LAUNCH in 1953.
That was awesome! nice work👌
who ironed your t-shirt ?
It's amazing how many watch history detectives can appear on various social media channels.
To be honest, who cares which watch was the first?
These kind of articles and videos are the perfect marketing for all the brands. It gives the products such a visibility, that for the sales it doesn't matter, what's the outcome of the story.
Blancpain lately gets so much press, that the awareness of the brand must skyrocket.
If you were deciding between Rolex Submariner, Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and Zodiac Seewolf, would you really decide just because it was the "first modern dive watch"?
The Turnograph 6202 wins then
Wonderful summary at the end of
This was awesome!!
Perezcope rocks!!! 👏 I mean, he really rocks the watch world!!!
That Perez is a crook who got his start in the watch world by cobbling together & selling fake Panerai during its heyday & early boom.
How else is he so adept at spotting fakes & frakens?
It takes a crook to spot the work of other crooks.
Go google his murky & sordid past.
Man lotta slithering lil snakes out there🐍🐍🐍🐍TY 4 sharing and this video very helpful💛😎
Hearing a young person trying to say Cousteau makes me feel so old.
I became aware of being old as a result of this as well 😂
My dad said the same thing!
Smart move on his part defaming a lawyer and Mr Hayek offering 0 evidence. We need more content creators like that.
Great video. Good job on all fronts. About the subject, I don't care, really, what was first and in what way, but drama is fun!
Good video, great points all around.
Did zero research beyond reading the article and some comment sections, butchered names that he could have googled, and it was still better than anything with Christian in it.
Nice vid big Mike
Question: isn't there an original "aqualung" floating around somewhere, with a date or serial number?
Surely some old French chap has one lying around in a cupboard somewhere?
I was attending a discussion with some people from Blancpain, and according to their storyteliing as these watches were toolwatches, most of them were simply disposed once newer/better spec'd watches were made available. Back the days nobody looked at them as some tools that could gain value over time, it was quite the opposite. But yeah, at least one should/could exist somewhere, I agree.
Its 45mm so does it matter?
Rolex could've sued Blancpain ages ago (maybe they had or tried to) if it was the Sub that debuted earlier than the Fifty Fathoms and used it as their marketing. As we all know, Rolex wouldn't miss any marketing chances.
The Fifty Fathoms is no competition for the Submariner. They are orders of magnitude apart in sales and popularity. No need to sue.
@@kresimirpleic For a marketing campaign, Rolex will sue anyone.
Loving the French. You’re like Inspector Clouseau in reverse 😂😂😂
I actually read Perezcope's article, straight away it smelled of a marketing stunt by Rolex to shift the narrative in their favor. And for a time it worked, there were fanboys and sales staff lapping it up.
Invicta pro diver came out in the 1920's and is in fact the first sub. It's in the horological society's annual journal published in 19 dickety 2. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!
Blancpain/ Swatch have made headlines so it should help sell that piece of plastic for £400 .
I'm glad you mentioned Zodiac sea wolf, for just over a thousand pounds your getting a great watch with heritage.
Enjoyed the video, thank you
Don't understand this talk about competition. Rolex has 29% of the Swiss watch market. Rolex competes with Rolex. Blancpain makes great watches but, there is no competition. I really do enjoy you content. Would love to know more about your watch collections and your thoughts on why you love those watches. Cheers,
If they were contacting the oldest watch company, wouldn't they have been contacting Vacheron Constantin?
What I learned: I still want a Submariner.
Seems like Perezscope does have his own little agenda on his page with specific brands he hate. No doubtr he'll expose anyone, but he puts in extra effort for brands he doesn't like for his personal opinion
Great analysis - thank you! Perezcope's obvious bias in definitions, word choice and tone in that article already made it impossible to take his arguments seriously. The article discredits itself with its overt hostility and aggression toward certain actors over a topic as ultimately unimportant as this. Interesting saga nonetheless.
I’m surprised this is even grey, I would have thought that there are still people alive that can state facts about this. Rolex have always been sneaky with their marketing. It could be around the first commercial available. But what about non commercially available.
Fiechter and the French Navy war hero are on record claiming it happened in 1953 - and they are first hand witnesses. But he has chosen not to believe them.
🕰️Interesting comparison, love both brands! 🤔
Wow swatch x blancpain must be working really well. Its got the people talking.
Blancpains founder owns the patents for the modern dive watch. Perezcope is just peddling pro Rolex narrative for personal financial reasons.
This isn’t even debatable. Patent was filed and awarded to him and if you know ANYTHING of French corporate espionage history, it’s pretty easy guess that they got their hands on the design.
Patents were discussed. People claim they filed AFTER they went into production . People seem to just want to believe they claimed patent pending before they ever actually filed, which there is no evidence that anyone ever did this. All BP has is corporate stories, with zero to actually back them. No documentation, no pictures, no watches discovered.
That Perez is a crook who got his start in the watch world by cobbling together & selling fake Panerai during its heyday & early boom.
How else is he so adept at spotting fakes & frakens?
It takes a crook to spot the work of other crooks.
Go google his murky & sordid past.
Rolex is elite liars of corporate stories… their entire Explorer history is made up.
Aqua lung contracted BP for French navy.. that’s well known way before Rolex copied it
1953 my birth year
I'm a huge fan of Blancpain especially Fifty Fathoms. I didn't care for Perezscope article .
Blancpain definitely was the first shown dive watch in the public eye at the 1953 Basel watch fair, Rolex was not until the following year. Whomever beat who to market first is possibly up for discussion here. Rolex also didn’t introduce a unidirectional bezel until the 1970’s, Fifty Fathom original watch was unidirectional. The Fifty Fathoms was not sold in jewelry stores for a while, was sold through dive shops, surf shops and military use. Love Rolex but this guy is too hard core Rolex trying to rewrite history. Three companies were in the race for the first dive watch, they all were shown first within a few months of each other. As someone who dives, a unidirectional bezel is very important as well as good lumen. I do not own a Fifty Fathoms since it’s too big for my wrist at 45mm and do own two subs but I don’t think rewriting history since one watch is much more popular then another. I think that’s why Rolex does not make the claim.
Proof?
The Zodiac was shown at the same show
Great work.👍🏻
Michael is young. I was shocked as well as he used to be a household name, but then said to myself, Michael is young.
Great video. Perezcope is selling his things ... My final wording: Rolex at that time had marketing director :) Blancpain not. That is it :)
Great video, highlights that even evidence is subject to interpretation.
The problem i have with all of this? I just don’t care lol can’t afford either one and who knows if i ever will nor does it really even matter
Andrew Morgan has a very clear video about it
I can't find it, where is it?
Great video.
I though that the Zodiac Sea Wolf came out earlier than either of them!
Yeah, the evidence presented in perezcope article would NOT hold up in court. He makes many very layman's logical jumps/connections which could easily be debunked.
You are fun to watch.
Christian should go away more often. - love the crazy professor vibe. Rolex had to apologise to Smiths about lying about the Everest accent. 😮 Rolex are great watches, but they are a marketing company first. Watchmaker second. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Blancpain fifty fathoms and the Zodiac Seawolf came out in 1953 in Baselwatch fair, the Rolex submariner came out 1954 a year later
The Sea Wolf was presented at the Basel Watch Fair in 1958.
Jackezz Co-stoo! 😅
Well… they could show military invoices for them and the whole thing would be solved. Those are definitely something they would have if true
The Submariner and the 50 fathoms are both one of the best. I don't care about any of this argument over who was first or better. But if you do, carry on. Im out.
Submariner is the best . The best homage ever. Period.
First Dive Watch- Seamaster Omega (first version is a reverso like watch with waterproof casing)-1933
1952- blancpain Exclusive Navy release watch diver watch
1954-Rolex first submariner. Commercialized the design. Wins the game
1955-Blancpain started the commercial release of the watch from military exclusive watches.
It doesn’t need a lawyer to know. Rolex won the war by default win by publicity. The buried blancpain proofs by time and resources.
I know this is an old video but it seems like Perezscope needs to learn that it is considered a logical fallacy when one uses a lack of evidence to support point A, as evidence to support point B.
New York horological Society speech the expert said the Director of marketing for Rolex was on the boat when the divers had on the 50 fathoms. It was definitely before the Rolex. Old records and military records show this to be true. Listen to that speech it’s on TH-cam and on the Internet.
Where's Theo?
Thanks for the santa spoiler alert, I clicked off, sorry about your retention stats.