製造商: Blancpain 年份: Circa 1960s 錶殼號碼: 15’016 型號名稱: Air Command 材料: Stainless steel 機芯: Manual, cal. Valjoux 222, 17 jewels 錶帶/ 錶鏈: Leather 錶扣: Stainless steel Blancpain buckle 尺寸: 42 mm diameter 簽名: Case, dial and buckle signed 配件: Accompanied with Blancpain black leather box
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One of the rarest and most epic vintage pilot’s watch models, Blancpain’s Air Command model is shrouded in a haze of myth, legend and glory. As a matter of fact, no official documentations can be found about this mysterious model, and scholars have asserted that it was never serially manufactured or commercialized. At the turn of the 1950s, Blancpain decided to enter the market for pilot’s wristwatches, and offered the Air Command to the U.S. Air Force. No orders were placed and the Air Command project was not pursued.
When the quartz crisis struck Blancpain in the early 1970s, the brand had to sell many of its properties, including some of its unfinished examples. This speaks volumes for the unmatched rarity and originality, especially also considering that only an extremely small number of specimen are known to have survived. With its history, the Air Command is one of those rare cases when the watch is truly deserving the moniker “icon”.
The thick and robust 42 mm case houses the Valjoux caliber 222 featuring the ultra-desirable fly-back function. This function provides improved accuracy for aviators by no longer requiring the wearer to use the stop function prior to resetting the chronograph. Preserved in excellent condition, the present watch is only 26 numbers apart from another example that was sold at START-STOP-RESET: 88 Epic Stainless Steel Chronographs.
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.