I was walking by the San Francisco Swatch store and dropped in to take a look at the Blancpain collaboration. The Swatch employee said they still only had limited colors of the MoonSwatch available but every color of the Blancpain was in stock. I’m not interested in either but it confirmed my suspicions that the Blancpain isn’t nearly as popular as the MoonSwatch, especially at the higher price point.
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Casuals don’t know Blancpain, they don’t care if the watch is automatic.
The moonswatch was so popular because a majority of people know Omega,being the first of the limited releases also built up hype, and people actually got to feel and see that the quality is the same as a swatch (which personally I’m not sure why people expected anything else from a $260 dollar watch)
Apart from that the colors are garish.
To be expected. Blancpain has never been a “cool” brand. The Fifty Fathoms is ugly and dated. Sparse to a fault, like those Unimatic watches. Just my opinion, to each their own. It’s also $400 plastic watch that can’t be serviced. The ETA quartz movement in the Moonswatch runs on batteries and objectively has a longer theoretical service life vs a sistem51 movement.
The color selection is hideous. There’s no “Mission to the Moon” option available. Imagine a black on black bezel option with the iconic yellow/red no rads indicator…but of course people would never bother buying the real thing if that were the case. The Fifty Fathoms doesn’t have the same mythological pull that the Moonwatch has.
Hopefully people have realised what BS marketing gimmicks both watches are. I can’t imagine paying $400 for a plastic disposable watch.
I don’t know if it’s a dud. The sales are obviously not going to be as high as with the Moonswatch, but without any inside knowledge, there’s no way of knowing. They could certainly have met or exceeded expectations.
However, I suspect that you are at least in the right direction. They aren’t heavily promoted in the stores during the most important sales period of the year. The Simpsons donut watch is all over the Swatch stores I’ve see , with the Blancpain collection off in the corner with the rest of the regular Swatches. They clearly aren’t leading with it for Christmas, and we’re only a couple of months on.
Watch YouTubers and hobbyists aren’t the general public, and that’s where Swatch lives.
I love my Moonswatch, I think it’s great fun to wear and no it’s NOT an Omega it’s a Swatch. I feel the same about the 50 Fathoms Swatch. I’m planning on picking one up, again for fun. The reason for the price difference is the 50 Fathoms is an automatic movement. If you’re looking for an inexpensive watch with an automatic movement that can go anywhere, the 50 Fathoms is a great option.
I havent handled the swatch FF, but if its anything like the moonswatch, it’s ridiculously flimsy. Nothing compared to the quality of an Orient kamasu (or many other orients), that are made of solid steel and a good 100 bucks or 25% cheaper.
I’ve handled them in stores where they were both pretty well stocked with maybe a color out of stock in each and it feels fine. Like I had a moonswatch too and it felt cheap. Definitely feel slightly different but still both are novelty watches and not worth the price. When I was in Europe I actually got offered one where with tax back and the exchange rate it would have come out to $350 somehow which I was confused by but even at 50 bucks off not worth it in my book.
Even on this sub there are far fewer people posting their Swatch x Blancpain.
I think it’s a combination of things: the higher price-point, Blancpain being less popular than Omega, and the watch craze is starting to die down a bit. People had lots of free time and extra cash during the pandemic years - that’s been changing this past year or so.It’s all of this, plus the fact that the Blancpain Swatch has a non-serviceable movement so when it dies, it dies for good. At least with the MoonSwatch if it dies you can easily have the battery replaced.
I think also a lot of people got burnt out on the whole cheap expensive brand watch thing with the Moonswatch getting so much coverage.
But besides that, brand is the biggest thing. Most non-watch people know Omega as a brand. Blancpain has very little if any recognition outside of our circle, hell, even many people who are into watches don’t know about Blancpain.
And even with people who know about Blancpain… is it exactly cool to have a swatch with a Blancpain logo on it? Kinda defeats the purpose… if someone offered me a plastic lange/Patek for 1k, I’d say no thank you.
Exactly, it’s dumb.
The designs being ugly is also a big factor.
I think you’re right on all points. I’m surprised they didn’t just do a Seamaster instead. I assume they’re waiting for the next Bond film and we’ll see a Swatch X Omega Seamaster X Bond watch.
BondSwatch
Seamaster would get great but Swatch Group is desperate to make Blancpain relevant. So far, no good.
They should start by shrinking the FF 3 millimeters
Yeah they completely missed the memo that people don’t want big watches anymore.
They could have tried a lot of other things first.
It’s all of this, plus the fact that the Blancpain Swatch has a non-serviceable movement so when it dies, it dies for good. At least with the MoonSwatch if it dies you can easily have the battery replaced.
You can just swap the whole movement out.
That’s not true, those cases are sealed shut from the factory, you literally have to destroy the case to even get to the movement.
The case back on the FF Swatch is glued, not integral to the case, so you shouldn’t need to destroy anything to remove it.
Is swatch manufacturing the Blancpain differently than they do most of their other watches with the Sistem51 movement? I have owned a couple and the cases are sealed shut, not able to be opened without damaging or breaking it.
In my opinion if it’s glued shut that means it’s non serviceable, they do not intend for you to open the watch which again supports my first point that once it dies it dies for good.
Some metal case Sistem51 models since 2016 have had removable casebacks, so serviceable models have been around for a while. The older plastic models were not serviceable.
This site claims that Swatch told them the FF case back was removable.
Supposedly the FF is glued to be able to get to the “50 fathoms” depth rating, probably it’s less a less expensive/complicated option compared to a screw-down back (the indentations on the case back look decorative, I don’t think they’re deep enough to survive being gripped by a tool). FWIW, Fratello’s blog post quotes Omega’s VP of Product as saying the case back can’t be removed, but I’m not sure how reliable the source is given the supposed statement from Swatch that it can be removed. To reconcile these two statements, I’d speculate that the Omega VP is erroneously applying the MoonSwatch’s reality to the FF, but who knows…
Dont forget… the moonwatch looks kind of cool… this one is uggly as hell… there is just no way looking at it and admiring the looks…
Kind of weird that the colors the picked for each ocean are based on sea slugs. I get the idea, but still… slugs.
I haven’t seen one in person, but I actually like it on the photos. I would even buy one if it was cheaper.
The FF doesn’t have the same hype as the Speedmaster
I was in Berlin a month ago, people was still lining up outside the SWATCH store. No idea if it was for the Blancpain or MoonSwatch.
I could buy any colour the MoonSwatch in Bangkok 8 months ago.
The fifty fathoms is sold only at KaDeWe, so that was a Moonswatch line you were looking at
The Speedy is a fine watch, and Moonswatch did a good job capturing the look of the real think in a plastic package. It’s an attractive watch even if it’s clearly a toy version of it.
The true Fifty Fathoms is a very distinguished watch, but the Swatch FF looks like the worst kind of plastic McDonald’s toy imaginable, while also charging you even more money.
The Moonswatch is a meme but it is an attractive meme. The FF is a hideous meme.
The watch community seems rather disdainful of both of them overall. Flawed watches for high prices is my impression of the general discontent with them.
Of course it is. Nobody other than watch enthusiasts ever heard the name Blancpain before.
50 fathoms….300 ft. 😂
They look cool to me, would be a cool backup dive watch
The rating was accomplished by them in the early 1950s. It was a big deal. The name stuck.
Good. The entire idea cheapens the brand names involved.
Yes it does. They ruined Blancpain in my book. I had two BPs and sold them both when they did that. I’ll never buy another.
As others have stated they are overhyped “watches” that can’t even be serviced. People paying hundreds for a disposable watch.
$400 is really high for a Swatch.
Growing up, their watches were $40-$50. And they were popular. You wore them for a year or two, and when they were too beat up, you bought another one. Anyone could buy them.
Today, they’re $80-$110.
So they drop the Moonswatch. $250 is high, but the economy was better, the watch was a novelty, many people know the Speedmaster was the first watch on the Moon. Omega has marketed the Speedy for 50+ years. Billions of billboards, bus shelters, and magazine ads. Also, the moonswatch had cool models related to our solar system. People could identify with those models.
Sold like wild fire.$400 for a plastic Blancpain?
Who, outside of serious watch collectors, knows anything about a 50 Fathoms or any Blancpain watches? If you surveyed 50 people on the street about 50 Fathoms, 50 of them would give you a blank look.Even the average Swatch customer, when entering the store, will google Blancpain 50 Fathoms to see what the original watch looked like and then figure out the association. And it’s still $400.
I’m surprised they are still in business tbh. $110 is a loy for their cheap, plastic watches, specially compared to what you can get from other brands, like Casio, at that price point.
I was going to buy one in Switzerland as a chrap souvenir of my trip, thinking they’d be like 50 bucks, I was shocked when I saw the prices.
I’m surprised they are still in business tbh
You’re aware they own, direct quote from wiki here, “Blancpain, Breguet, Certina, ETA, Glashütte Original, Hamilton, Harry Winston, Longines, Mido, Omega, Rado, and Tissot.”
I mean Swatch as a watch brand, I’m well aware that they own many other brands.
lol yeah pretty much only watch nerds realize what a massive JUGGERNAUT the SWATCH group is. SWATCH made some great acquisitions in the 80s/90s/00s when a lot of watchmakers were struggling to stay afloat.
Kinda comparable to how billionaires love recessions because they can scoop up a ton of assets for pennies in the dollar while most people are just trying to survive.
Volkswagen Group is also a good example of a conglomerate wherein most people don’t realize they own brands like Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Ducati motorcycles.
$50 when Swatch launched is $155 dollars today. It’s called inflation.
I swear I remember being able to buy a pretty decent swatch for like $25 in the 00s which is barely $50 in today’s money.
Exactly. The Moonswatch didn’t just have the timing and the novelty factor going for it—both of which were huge—but also the fact that pretty much everyone who has even a passing familiarity with watches knows what a Speedmaster is. Probably second only to various Rolex models on the “oh yeah, I’ve heard of that before” familiarity scale. You have to be relatively deep into watches already to know or care what the Fifty Fathoms is — and most of those people probably aren’t the types who will buy a $400 plastic Swatch.
Right, and those who were interested in Fifty Fathoms and a fun take… probably had WAY more fun with the Fifty Phantoms