Blancpain
2004: The Blancpain Villeret Quantième Perpetual, hidden functionality for a cleaner design
Blancpain
2004: The Blancpain Villeret Quantième Perpetual, hidden functionality for a cleaner design
What should be celebrated are the less obvious – but much more useful – achievements. And one spectacular example of this sort of user-friendly innovation is Blancpain’s under lug corrector.
This patented invention, first released in 2004 on the very classic Villeret Quantième Perpetual ref. 6057, an elegant, 38mm that is the epitome of the sort of watch that made Jean-Claude Biver fall in love with the historic marque.
Then some bright spark in Blancpain wondered if there was a way to make the case lines cleaner, to remove them of these blemishes. And at that time it was not feasible to do away with the correctors entirely, so the question became – where to hide them. The answer was the least-used real estate on a watch – under the lugs. This would achieve the objectives of keeping the lines of the case clear and also ensure an unobstructed view of the caseback.
Thanks to a new corrector lever mechanism, not only could Blancpain hide the adjusters on the rear of the case. But also, because of the design, these correctors could be operated not by a fiddly, scratchy pusher, but simply with the firm press of a thumbnail.