Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 3H Bund
“In 1975 the German Military required a watch for it’s Navy Combat Divers, or to be more precise, the West German Bundeswehr Kampfschwimmers. They commissioned Blancpain to produce a special edition of the ‘Fifty Fathoms’ – and this was the result – the 3H Fifty Fathoms. As most of you know, the 3H is a military reference to tritium indexes and hands. This model was never available for civilian use, and only ever Military issued.
The Bundeswehr Kampfschwimmers specialised in missions requiring them to be under water for seriously long periods of time, using specialist re-breather scuba equipment, so didn’t require minute markings on the bezel. Hours were measured; hence the blank – or ‘sterile’ bezel as it is commonly referred to.
The bezel insert is acrylic and due to expansion & contraction, many examples have the tell-tale split down the centre of the lume triangle – a good sign of original lume. The bezel is also bi-directional, and has a smooth action with no ratcheting clicks. I understand that there is still a hole in the case (at 12 position) under the bezel where normally a spring wire would be seated, resulting it the usual ratcheting bezel, but this spring was ‘deleted’ for the Kampfschwimmers.
The 42mm Von Buren case (Squale), very similar to Squale’s current 1521 case, but is much thicker at 15mm and I’m certain the crystal is the thicker tough top-hat type – which is probably over-engineered for a 200m diver – I’ve a Heuer diver has a very similar Von Buren case and top-hat crystal.
It’s powered by a Rayville Cal. 2873 auto movement. It’s not a particularly impressive movement, but seems to have been chosen for its no-nonsense ruggedness.”
Author: Heuerville
Industrial and graphic design director. Proud pitbull dad. Non smoker & drinker. Watch, camera, bike, & car nerd.
Thanks for the backstory on this impressive piece of history!
Very impressive.
Very cool piece. I believe the case type is called "Spirotechnique" style. The Heuer Deep Dive used it and it has been continued to some degree with modern Squale watches. There were several grades 1000m, 500m etc....
Very cool piece. I believe the case type is called "Spirotechnique" style. The Heuer Deep Dive used it and it has been continued to some degree with modern Squale watches. There were several grades 1000m, 500m etc....
The case was spec’d by Spirotechnique for Heuer and a number of other manufacturers, but it is commonly known as the Charles Von Büren case after the founder of Squale, and is known for an unfathomable amount of dive watch innovations.
The case was spec’d by Spirotechnique for Heuer and a number of other manufacturers, but it is commonly known as the Charles Von Büren case after the founder of Squale, and is known for an unfathomable amount of dive watch innovations.
I own a deep dive with this style case and I love it,
Always like little educational entries like these ! Thanks for the info:)
Wow! What a watch! Brilliant Milsub ⚓️
Interesting: if you look the Master Marina Militare from Squale it looks pretty much the same. I suppose that the case was produced by Squale, right?
Interesting: if you look the Master Marina Militare from Squale it looks pretty much the same. I suppose that the case was produced by Squale, right?
Correct. The cases are similar except the Master Marina, which I also own, has a helium escape valve which is on the opposite side pictured above.
Amsterdam Watch Co, AWCo, commissioned Squale to create a limited edition watch that is the closest homage to the 3H Bund.
Beautiful watch and a great story. Thanks for sharing this with us!