Dubai: Four months after watchmakers Swatch and Blancpain released the ‘Scuba Fifty’ collection, the two Swiss brands released a sixth model in the line – ‘Ocean of Storms’. Launched on January 11, Swatch launched the Ocean of Storms model into its Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms collection. The Fifty Fathoms collection revolutionised watchmaking by becoming the first true diver’s watch over seventy years ago. It was designed by then-CEO of Blancpain Jean-Jacques Fiechter, a passionate scuba diver.
Named after its Latin name Oceanus Procellarum (a lunar mare or sea located on the western edge of the near side of the moon), the watch is named after the lunar sea that spans more than 2,500 kilometres from north to south and covers around two million square kilometres.
A non-limited model, Ocean of Storms, comes in black inspired by the new moon, also known as the Black Moon. Like the other five Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms, the watch has a Swatch mechanical movement, Sistems51, the first and only mechanical movement whose production is entirely automated. “This mechanism, made up of just 51 parts - including one central screw, is anti-magnetic, thanks to its Nivachron hairspring and has a 90-hour power reserve,” said Swatch in a statement.
Launched in 2013, Sistems 51 revolutionised the world of automatic watches with visible movement: the front tells the time, the back tells the story.
Ocean of Storms
The Ocean of Storms has been given its own nudibranch - Okenia Luna - featured in a digital print on the movement’s rotor. This part allows the watch to recharge automatically with a simple wrist movement. Nudibranchs are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs.
The full moon zoomed in on the Ocean of Storms is digitally imprinted on the oscillating weight. Like others in the series, the watch is water resistant in deep waters, down to 91 meters. “This is another nod to Blancpain: the name Fifty Fathoms refers to the fathom – historically the maritime measure of depth in the English-speaking world – fifty fathoms equaling 91 meters (or 300 feet),” said the company.
Ocean of Storms is made of Bioceramic, a material patented by Swatch and made of two-thirds ceramic and one-third bio sourced material derived from castor oil. The straps are made from recycled fishing nets. The shared Blancpain X Swatch logos are on the black sunray-finish dial and the crown.
The watch was made available worldwide from January 11, the day of the new moon, at selected Swatch stores. As with the five watches in the Bioceramic Scuba Fifty Fathoms Collection, purchases are limited to one watch per person, store, and daily.
