A community for watch & horology discussion.
Casuals don't know Blancpain, they don't care if the watch is automatic.
The moonswatch was so popular because a majority of people know Omega,being the first of the limited releases also built up hype, and people actually got to feel and see that the quality is the same as a swatch (which personally I'm not sure why people expected anything else from a $260 dollar watch)
Apart from that the colors are garish.
To be expected. Blancpain has never been a "cool" brand. The Fifty Fathoms is ugly and dated. Sparse to a fault, like those Unimatic watches. Just my opinion, to each their own. It's also $400 plastic watch that can't be serviced. The ETA quartz movement in the Moonswatch runs on batteries and objectively has a longer theoretical service life vs a sistem51 movement.
The color selection is hideous. There's no "Mission to the Moon" option available. Imagine a black on black bezel option with the iconic yellow/red no rads indicator...but of course people would never bother buying the real thing if that were the case. The Fifty Fathoms doesn't have the same mythological pull that the Moonwatch has.
As others have stated they are overhyped “watches” that can’t even be serviced. People paying hundreds for a disposable watch.
I was there on Friday and they did not have a full stock of blancpain. So they must have got a delivery recently.
Omega has more brand goodwill than blanc
Good. The entire idea cheapens the brand names involved.
Yes it does. They ruined Blancpain in my book. I had two BPs and sold them both when they did that. I’ll never buy another.
When I visited the Vegas Swatch store they were sold out, but had half the Moonswatch solar system. I may have picked one up if they had any 🤷🏼♂️
I was in Berlin a month ago, people was still lining up outside the SWATCH store. No idea if it was for the Blancpain or MoonSwatch.
I could buy any colour the MoonSwatch in Bangkok 8 months ago.
A quartz chrono makes so much more sense for a disposable plastic watch than a $400 automatic.
Not that many people know about the Blancpain as brand. More people probably know what a speedmaster at a glance than know what a Blancpain is. On top of all of that, the MoonSwatch/Speedmaster looks better.
The MoonSwatch was cool cause the colors made sense and actually looked good. None of the Blancpain colors look good.
I just looked them up for the first time and they look like plastic children's toys that you'd get at Walmart.
Imo the color choices also make a difference. The moonswatch color choices are fun, all look amazing, and some of them tap into unique heritage like the hands on the mission to Mars. The blancpain colors on the other hand are pretty much all ugly but 2. I saw a few comments talking about how bad they looked on the leak and new right away this was a dud from the get go. Not much the price is absurd. That's actual good watch money. You could buy a quartz prx for around that, a bunch of seikos. Just a bad pricepoint for novelty. I also think the automatic movement moves it into more watch enthusiast space, where as the moonswatch had more mainstream appeal. And watch enthusiast are going to more critical of a trash automatic then a quartz watch imo
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.
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.
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 could have tried a lot of other things first.
BondSwatch
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.
The Speedy is a fine watch, and Moonswatch did a good job capturing the look of the real think in a plastic package. It’s an attractive watch even if it’s clearly a toy version of it.
The true Fifty Fathoms is a very distinguished watch, but the Swatch FF looks like the worst kind of plastic McDonald’s toy imaginable, while also charging you even more money.
The Moonswatch is a meme but it is an attractive meme. The FF is a hideous meme.
The FF doesn't have the same hype as the Speedmaster
The watch community seems rather disdainful of both of them overall. Flawed watches for high prices is my impression of the general discontent with them.
50 fathoms….300 ft. 😂
They look cool to me, would be a cool backup dive watch
The rating was accomplished by them in the early 1950s. It was a big deal. The name stuck.
I don't know if it's a dud. The sales are obviously not going to be as high as with the Moonswatch, but without any inside knowledge, there's no way of knowing. They could certainly have met or exceeded expectations.
However, I suspect that you are at least in the right direction. They aren't heavily promoted in the stores during the most important sales period of the year. The Simpsons donut watch is all over the Swatch stores I've see , with the Blancpain collection off in the corner with the rest of the regular Swatches. They clearly aren't leading with it for Christmas, and we're only a couple of months on.
Watch YouTubers and hobbyists aren't the general public, and that's where Swatch lives.
$400 is really high for a Swatch.
Growing up, their watches were $40-$50. And they were popular. You wore them for a year or two, and when they were too beat up, you bought another one. Anyone could buy them.
Today, they’re $80-$110.
So they drop the Moonswatch. $250 is high, but the economy was better, the watch was a novelty, many people know the Speedmaster was the first watch on the Moon. Omega has marketed the Speedy for 50+ years. Billions of billboards, bus shelters, and magazine ads.
Also, the moonswatch had cool models related to our solar system. People could identify with those models.
Sold like wild fire.
$400 for a plastic Blancpain?
Who, outside of serious watch collectors, knows anything about a 50 Fathoms or any Blancpain watches? If you surveyed 50 people on the street about 50 Fathoms, 50 of them would give you a blank look.
Even the average Swatch customer, when entering the store, will google Blancpain 50 Fathoms to see what the original watch looked like and then figure out the association. And it’s still $400.
Exactly. The Moonswatch didn’t just have the timing and the novelty factor going for it—both of which were huge—but also the fact that pretty much everyone who has even a passing familiarity with watches knows what a Speedmaster is. Probably second only to various Rolex models on the “oh yeah, I’ve heard of that before” familiarity scale. You have to be relatively deep into watches already to know or care what the Fifty Fathoms is — and most of those people probably aren’t the types who will buy a $400 plastic Swatch.
Right, and those who were interested in Fifty Fathoms and a fun take… probably had WAY more fun with the Fifty Phantoms
I'm surprised they are still in business tbh. $110 is a loy for their cheap, plastic watches, specially compared to what you can get from other brands, like Casio, at that price point.
I was going to buy one in Switzerland as a chrap souvenir of my trip, thinking they'd be like 50 bucks, I was shocked when I saw the prices.
Of course it is. Nobody other than watch enthusiasts ever heard the name Blancpain before.
The price point was way too high.
End of the day it's just a Swatch. Enjoy it if you like it but I could see how the general consumer wouldn't know Blancpain versus how most will know Omega.
I think about 1% of the population heard about blancpqin as a brand. For omega that's like 50-70 times more people. On top of that can you name me an iconic piece from blanpain that you would want a cheaper copy of? Millions want a omega moonwatch an icon for any space and watchlovwr.
What immediately turned me off is they are not serviceable. If it breaks down...which it will...you get to toss in the garage.
Hopefully people have realised what BS marketing gimmicks both watches are. I can't imagine paying $400 for a plastic disposable watch.
People without money are not going to buy something like that and people with money are going to buy something better.
I like many others are in the financial position of "too poor to buy cheap". But these collabs aren't even that cheap all things considered. That is a very expensive Swatch, what's the point?
The moonswatch in itself is already a really bad value watch tbh
The blancpain is more painful pricing
And completely unserviceable. It’s literally a throw away. Shameful.
its crazy how they got so hyped up.
like u can get a Seiko Speedtimer the solar quarts one for the same price as some grey market moonswatch and people stills buy a plastic toy watch over it.
i just don't get the hype for it. bad value for MSRP awful value for the grey market price.
blancpain one is awful value but atleast its not hyped.
im all for accesibility but i really don't think these watches are it
This is the problem with BlancPain as a whole. Good product, but massively overpriced.
In some respects I am glad.. the Moonswatch, I would imagine, sold way beyond Swatches wildest expectations and presumably they thought they had a sure fire cash cow lined up going forward. At least disappointing sales on the Blancpain collab will cause some kind of pause / reset / rethink on whether this model works on other watches.
It looks like it costs $25 to manufacture.
What the fuck is a blancpain
I’ve been casually into watches for a while and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I only heard about Blancpain this year (I’m 34 years old). I knew the Omega name before I was even a teenager. I bet if you ask 100 random people on the street 99 of them will have heard of Omega