製造商: Blancpain 年份: 1960 型號: 3217 型號名稱: "Milspec", "U.S. Navy" 材料: Antimagnetic alloy 機芯: Automatic, cal. AS 1361, 17 jewels 錶帶/ 錶鏈: Nylon 錶扣: Steel 尺寸: 41mm. Diameter 簽名: Case, dial and movement signed
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The present Blancpain "U.S. Navy" is one of the rarest diver's watches in the world, as until to date, we only know of three such examples in total. One of them participated at the Fifty Fathoms exhibition in 2010. The three watches have in common that their serial number all fall into the 3,200 sequence.
These watches are part of the milspec 1 series with which they share the same bezel featuring a triangle but also the small winding crown. Equally they all feature the schild cal. 1361 modified with a hack feature, and this series features a humidity indicator placed on the dial below the center.
We understand that Blancpain was pitching for a larger order with the U.S. Navy, for which purpose these watches were made. As Blancpain did not win this important contract, the "U.S. Navy" model never went beyond the prototype phase. The case is made of an anti-magnetic alloy with a greenish hue, often called bronze by collectors. The Blancpain "U.S. Navy" is not only one of the rarest diver's wristwatches in the world, but also one of the best looking. The present example here, in extraordinarily good condition must be considered one of the most worthy collectors watches to aficionados of diver's watches.
As the watchmaking brand with the earliest founding date, Blancpain remains close to tradition, concentrating on classical mechanical watches. Established in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain, the Le Brassus manufacturer today continues to innovate with the development of high-quality calibres and is proud of their heritage, having never made quartz watches. One of the firm's greatest successes was the Fifty Fathom wristwatch introduced in 1953 — the vintage models of which are now highly coveted by collectors. The earliest dive watch available to the market, Fifty Fathom came out a year prior to Rolex's Submariner. Another key model is the Air Command from the 1960s, considered one of the most mythical collector's watches due to their extreme rarity. Today, the firm specializes in creative innovated complicated timepieces.
型號 3217 An extremely rare and historically important stainless steel prototype wristwatch with centre seconds and humidity indicator, made for the U.S. Navy
1960 41mm. Diameter Case, dial and movement signed