For Baselworld 2016, Blancpain is introducing a stainless steel version of their Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT watch, providing a cleaner and more contemporary look. When I’ve looked at this watch in passing as someone rather fond of GMT complications, it took me some time to figure out why the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT just wasn’t giving me the same feeling I get from most GMT watches. Then something clicked in my conscious, and I was sucked in. Basically, it’s because this is a GMT watch that, well, does not look like a GMT watch. Without that additional central hand and accompanying scale, it would be easy to misinterpret the GMT sub dial at 8 o’clock as a sub-seconds dial. Of course, the lack of movement and the scale betrays that, but still…
Otherwise, it’s mainly the same, with day, month, and moonphase apertures back into their standard positions, along with a dedicated date hand pointing to the calendar toward the outside of the dial. This is how most mid-century triple calendars were designed and it allows the apertures to appreciate more room on the dial. The date track isn’t at the edge of the dial, however; rather it’s inside the implemented hour markers, that can be Blancpain’s highly stylized Villeret Roman numerals.While the fundamentals haven’t changed much in 30 decades, this watch looks much younger and younger due to the sunburst finish on the dial. The result it produces is fairly wonderful to check at, but using this particular white gold configuration with white gold hands it doesn’t assist the legibility of the watch in all — this was not an issue in Blancpain’s previous models and is not a problem with some of the other color configurations. However, studying the white gold palms against the sunburst dial was hard and did not really get easier the more I had the watch in my wrist.What is quite new though are the calendar’s most correctors, which can be now elegantly hidden below each drag. The notion was introduced in 2003 with the debut of Calibre 6763, which Blancpain Wrist Watches Replica created for a limited edition to celebrate the model’s 20th anniversary. As this is a whole calendar, not an annual or perpetual, it’s a watch which needs correcting five times a year, at the conclusion of months without 31 days. This typically involves operating a series of sensitive push bits on the instance flanks using a pin of some kind. It is a small annoyance, but a real one. Blancpain’s solution ensures a quicker and friendly way of resetting the calendar, with four little correctors for the day, month, date, and moonphase indicators. They’re simple to get, and much simpler to work because you do not require a modification tool. They also wash up the situation design a bit, since you do not need the divots for all those correctors in the caseband.
For me, that is the hook with the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT, in that it sort of hides it’s functionality in plain sight. Then we get into the other complications on the watch. Along with time and GMT time, calendar-related stuff is high on my list of usable functions on a watch; here, on the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT, we have an annual calendar complication. This complication requires adjusting the calendar once between February and March, as opposed to a perpetual calendar where that wouldn’t be necessary.
Now, this sort of complication is not something new or rare. On the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT, what stood out for me is, first, how the display windows are implemented. The date shows up at the normal position, but the day and month take up non-standard positions on the dial, rather than just up at the top. Yes, this unbalances the dial a little bit, but I’ll give that a pass for the uniqueness of the execution. The second thing that stood out for me was where Blancpain put the adjustment pushers. Rather than having these on the left side of the case, they actually hid them under the lugs.
This is a clever option, and I am surprised more brands have not tried this. By putting the calendar adjustment pushers of the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT under the lugs, we are left with a very clean case. Frankly, you will not be fiddling with those pushers very much, provided you keep the watch wound, so why not tuck them away where they are not noticeable?
So far, it would be fair to say that we have not discussed much with the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT that has not appeared for the line already – so what’s new for BaselWorld? Here, it’s the case material. This is the first time that the 40mm case has appeared in stainless steel. Paired to a white dial and black alligator strap (22mm, for those wondering), you have a very classic sort of a look in terms of the color palette. If, for some reason, you want a splash of color, you will get that via the exhibition case back, where you can see the decorated rotor in yellow gold.
On the whole, I like the looks of the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT with its 6054F movement. I am a little uncertain about the Roman numerals on the dial, and I cannot make my mind up if I’d remove them or make them larger, but the rest of the look, and particularly the layout, really have me hooked on the Blancpain line. Price for the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Annuel GMT in steel will be $27,300. blancpain.com