Following the sale of the Rayville-Blancpain name to Jacques Piguet and Jean Claude Biver in 1983, Blancpain began a journey from near-bankruptcy to acting as one of the main catalysts that saved Swiss watchmaking. Key to this success was Blancpain’s steadfast dedication to mechanical watches with thin complicated movements, classical designs, and extremely luxurious craftsmanship. As such, Blancpain’s elegant dress watches became some of the most popular on the market and the brand continued to enjoy incredible growth. As the brand’s way to celebrate Jehan-Jacques Blancpain’s birthday, the brand’s original founder, the Jubilee Limited Edition Ultra Slim was launched in 1993 as a limited edition collection of 300 pieces. Featuring a 34mm 18kt white gold case built using the same elegant design language as most of Blancpain’s popular offerings, the Jubilee Limited Edition Ultra Slim’s thin profile, stepped bezel and hefty 18kt white gold case ensured it was a delight to wear. Manually-wound through its cal. 64-1 movement, the ref. 7001 is the culmination of Blancpain’s traditionalist watchmaking ideologies. As such, it features a simple white dial whose only reference to its commemorative status is the “1693-1993” inscription found in its subseconds dial at 6 o’clock.

It's not often that brands will commemorate special events with such understated limited editions like the ref. 7001 that we have here but such is Blancpain's restrained design language that everything they do is done with grace and decorum like none other.