These days, when Nick Hayek Jr, Swatch CEO and brainchild of the MoonSwatch phenomenon, is presenting his best ideas – industry-defining, game-changing ones – he likes to do so while puffing on a cigar. A Nicaraguan Gilbert de Montsalvat Gran Toro Classic to be precise.
At least this was the case at Swatch HQ last week, where together with Marc Hayek (Blancpain CEO) he announced that Swatch and Blancpain would be joining forces to create a unique collection of watches that might just break the internet again.
What we know about the collab
Conversations between Swatch and Blancpain have been ongoing since August 2022, six months after the MoonSwatch was launched, but Nick Hayek says this was one of many options for Swatch's next big move.
“[Since MoonSwatch] I’ve had discussions with people from luxury brands [not from Swatch] that are friends with us who wanted to be the second one in line for this kind of collaboration,” says Hayek. “Their argument was, I have so many young customers who are aspiring, but cannot buy a watch for $30,000 or $50,000, so if I open a collaboration with Swatch, in the way you have done with Omega, I can reach more people with my name, with my history, with what is coming.”
As many people have predicted since Swatch released a cryptic advertisement last Friday, it was to be Blancpain, primarily thanks to his nephew Marc’s resolute enthusiasm for exploring such an opportunity. Granted Marc had the benefit of hindsight (witnessing the instant MoonSwatch success), but Nick says there was a clear distinction between how Marc approached this upcoming project (with excitement) vs how Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann did (with a degree of trepidation).
That makes sense on a few levels, not least because Omega is a much more well-known watch brand (think James Bond and the Olympics) so definitely had more to lose if the collaboration wasn’t right. Blancpain on the other hand, despite an impressive history and being a step up in the luxury stakes, is not as well established in the bigger horological picture. An opportunity for such a collaboration would open up wider conversations, meaning more people would learn about Blancpain and its watches.
What about the design?
From a design perspective, we know Gregory Kissling (Head of Special Projects for the CEO of Swatch Group) has worked closely on this new collaboration, just as he did on the MoonSwatch. Knowing this, there are likely to be a number of carefully-thought out design features and so-called Easter eggs within this collection of unique watches that will no doubt nod to Blancpain’s history and heritage.
From the latest Swatch teaser, we know there will be five watches in this collection, each named after one of the world’s oceans. The Indian Ocean, The Atlantic Ocean, The Pacific Ocean will refer to modern Blancpain models and the more extreme oceans, The Arctic Ocean and The Antarctic Ocean, will refer to historical Blancpain models.
While the dial colours or specifics are unknown, we can confirm each one will feature brand new bioceramic colours, and each watch’s colourway is inspired by a nudibranch that is native to the particular ocean.
For those of you who don’t know (us included), nudibranchs are a type of sea slug. More specifically, they are soft-bodied marine molluscs that lack external shells. There are more than 5000 species of nudibranchs in the five oceans, so Swatch and Blancpain decided it would be fun – and in keeping with Blancpain’s commitment to the oceans – to select five that mirror the colours of its new watches.
“They're very colourful and play an important role in the balance of the marine ecosystem,” says Gregory Kissing. “They eat unwanted seaweed that preserves the corals and they are hermaphrodite, meaning that they can reproduce themselves,” he adds. The novel idea to use nudibranchs as inspo for the colourways came from Marc Hayek, who as well as being the CEO of Blancpain, is also an avid diver.
Given Blancpain has the undisputed accolade of releasing the first original dive watch of all time – before the likes of Omega and Rolex – in the shape of the iconic Fifty Fathoms (which incidentally is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year), many dive watch enthusiasts are hoping (praying) that the collaboration’s link to the five oceans could signal the first ever accessible version of a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms.
Couple that with the nostalgic good-vibes-only appeal of Swatch’s own previous in the dive watch game – who still has a Swatch Scuba Happy Fish? – and you have a potentially very appealing prospect. But all will be revealed in good time.
Is a quartz Blancpain on the cards?
We’ll just leave the words of watchmaking legend Jean-Claude Biver here, from when he acquired Blancpain back in 1982: “There has never been a quartz Blancpain watch and there never will be.”
Will this be the only Swatch x Blancpain collection?
“There's nothing predefined that we will do,” says Marc when asked whether this will be the first of many releases à la MoonSwatch. “If it works, I have some ideas that I would like to propose for what’s next but nothing is fixed yet.”
When and how can you get hold of one?
Mr Hayek Jr confirmed that the retail roll out will be exactly the same as with the MoonSwatch. There will be a yellow suitcase in the windows of all Swatch stores around the world, where the watches will go on sale on Saturday September 9. These will appear in Blancpain boutiques too, but as display only.
Read all about the new Swatch x Blancpain collection here.
