Blancpain: The Birth of Neo-Vintage | Subdial Curates

What does the Villeroy mean to me? Traditional, complicated and in some ways mysterious watchmaking. Who was buying this watch back in the 80s and who was this guy who decided to go and spend what would be the cost of a house on a watch because you know they loved the watchmaking that went into it. Blomkamp really chose a different path and that's why yes it's traditional and complicated but at the same time it was radical. What Blomkamp were doing coming out of the quartz crisis really stood apart from mostly what anyone else was doing and the watches that they released in the early 80s they don't look radical to modern eyes but they were because Blomkamp's entire focus was on this traditional complicated watchmaking that almost nobody else was really doing or certainly not focusing on it entirely and it was a rejection of modernity, a rejection of quartz industrialization but if you think about what other people were doing as well with integrated bracelets steel sports watches Blomkamp really chose a different path. I've always been drawn to that period of watchmaking just because of what it means when I think about the fact that you had a company which was built from scratch and decided to make extremely complicated watches at a time when quartz was beginning to dominate the industry I think that's incredible and if we think about how that company was run they were doubling down on everything the Swiss watchmaking industry was about. When we think about the creation of all these complicated watches that came from that period like the six masterpieces and then to not only produce those but then to double down and create double complications or even triple complications or even combining all six masterpieces together I think that's incredible particularly when as I said the industry faced such huge headwinds at the time. It wasn't just a sort of cultural phenomenon it was they went on this incredible run of watchmaking lots of horological firsts now the world's thinnest automatic chronograph at the time the world's thinnest rattrapante the world's smallest minute repeater really trailblazing but very traditional at the same time kind of innovating while respecting the history of watchmaking and really when we look back quite instrumental in preserving that craft and that approach to watchmaking and I think that is the part that's quite underappreciated as much as anything else and I think for a neo-vintage collector in particular if you look at it versus some of for instance the holy trinity kind of they came a little bit later in returning to this focus where Blancpain went very early and it was risky and Blancpain was almost operating as a proto-independent I guess in the way that they were thinking about this horological innovation they had you know charismatic leaders who were taking these watches out on the road to sell them production volumes weren't huge it's just a really fascinating time for watchmaking in terms of what Blancpain was doing and how they contributed particularly from that era the 80s and 90s because it was treated and run like an independent brand it means that there's a lot of stuff out there that isn't well documented isn't well known but is extremely interesting and so you can find gems that haven't been seen before in the marketplace that really speak to that era so for example you can find you know mother of pearl dial on a split-second chronograph or you can find you know a watch covered in diamonds or you'll be able to find a cloisonne enamel tourbillon and so it really encourages doing the research to try and find these watches and these unusual pieces which exist out there and because there's not much you know research or scholarship it rewards you doing that scholarship it's the idea of the romantic nature of that element which really draws me to collecting and researching the brand. So I think a lot of people are often drawn to the complicated villarays that makes a lot of sense are very interesting I own some of them myself but the one that I think is the perfect expression of Blancpain's watchmaking at the time is the 0021 the ultra thin ultra thin watchmaking at a time when quartz is everywhere is a very brave thing to do it's very stark in the way that they present it in the stepped case two-hander but it's a beautiful watch and I just think a perfect expression of the classicism and tradition that Blancpain were trying to invoke. I think one of the things that really sticks out to me is when I first got into researching Blancpain around five years ago a close friend of mine said to me you've got to check out this Blancpain I've just bought and it was a petrol candor chronograph in in rose gold and I remember seeing it and thinking wow this thing is so small and yet it's so complicated in what it can it can do and also super elegant it just really appealed to me and I think since then I've been this journey trying to research Blancpain even deeper try and understand that era more and then also hunt out more and more pieces that exist out there because you know there's still so much out there which is yet to be I think there's something exciting and there's still things to discover like it's not complete I don't know and so there's something in sort of like exchanging references that you find with other collectors and you know being surprised about that and trying to work out you know what year where it came from it's just like this journey of discovery that you kind of go on together is really exciting and it's quite close knit because I don't think everyone is kind of collecting these maybe they will now this exhibition has been on but it's still quite mysterious in terms of what references are out there there's not this complete picture that there is with I don't know something like Rolex for instance where everything is documented up down to the nth degree whereas Blancpain is not so much and that's kind of what makes it exciting