this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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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.
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.
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.
BondSwatch
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.
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.
The designs being ugly is also a big factor.
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.
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…