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Blancpain is one of the golden names of Swiss Watch-making. Over the years, their complete mastery of the creation and production control provided to the brand a comfortable freedom of creation. One of the fruits of this freedom was the creation of an ultra-slim mechanism, 3.37mm only. You can find it in the Villeret Ultra-plate.
Blancpain Villeret ultraplate

Villeret, a piece of history and a great watch collection

Villeret is the name of Blancpain home-town. Placed in the middle of Joux valley, the watchmakers valley, Villeret developed partially thanks to Blancpain and the complementary activities.
Founded in 1735 by Jean-Jacques Blancpain, Blancpain is the oldest Swiss Watch brand. Several generations of the Blancpain family successfully established the brand throught time until 1932, where the Blancpain lignee stopped with Frédéric-Emile Blancpain death. Employees of the company proudly took over until they sold the brand to
Jean-Claude Biever and Jacques Piguet in 1983. It is also the time in which the brand moved from Villeret to Le Brassus. At this point the brand is dedicated to high-end luxury watches with mechanical movements. Blancpain never manufactured Quartz movements and kept the prestige positioning. In 1992, Blancpain is acquired by The Swatch group and represents the top brand, together with Jacquet Droz. Today it is Marc Alexander Hayek who is the CEO of Blancpain.

Marc-Hayek

Here is what he says about the brand today: “Over the last six years, our Manufacture has launched eighteen new calibres, testimony to the remarkable creative spirit of our workers. Whether destined for a Carrousel Répétition Minutes, a Quantième Annuel GMT or a tourbillon with its power reserve incorporated into the oscillating weight, every component of our movements, even if hidden, is hand-decorated by our artist engravers employing traditional skills.”

blancpain-manufacture
Blancpain does not let randomness to its work. Every single detail is treated as a main item of the watch. And this mastery and hard work make Blancpain watches one of the best in the world.

Villeret Ultraplate, slim is a luxury

Blancpain is constantly innovating. By mastering the art of watch-making, the Swiss brand became an icon of elegance, performance and luxury. With the Villeret Ultraplate, Blancpain created one of the slimmest mechanical movement in the world with 3.37mm. It is the Blancpain caliber 1151. With 210 components, a silicon balance spring and 28 jewels, this slim self-winding mechanism offer an amazing 100 hours power reserve. It is shelted in a 40mm steel case with a water resistance of 3 bar (20meters). Its Alligator strap will dress this watch with a touch of refined elegance.

Blancpain-villeret-ultraplat

Blancpain wrote its history with golden letters and stay true to the spirit of 1735. Their philosophy of manufacturing the best timepieces they can produce is still there and makes this brand an unique jewel of Swiss watch-making.

LA

Info sourced at Blancpain website and Dictionnaire du Jura. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available