Today, Blancpain has expanded its flagship collection with six new references. Four belong to the new 38mm Villeret Ultraplate family, including the first salmon dial ever offered within the collection, while two new 29.2mm moonphase models continue one of Blancpain’s most enduring signatures.

On first glance, these are straightforward, incremental updates. There are no exotic materials, no new complications, and no attempt to break a formula that has worked for more than four decades. Yet, in a marketplace obsessed with headlines and hype, resizing the Ultraplate to 38mm is arguably the most important move Blancpain has made within the line in recent years.

Blancpain Villeret Ultraplate

While it won’t be seen as a dramatic overhaul, these additions feel entirely in keeping with the collection’s history. The modern Ultraplate has centered around a 40mm case, however, the Complete Calendar Moonphase that became synonymous with Blancpain’s 1980s revival measured just 34mm. Villeret has always been a collection concerned with elegance rather than trends and the new case size reflects that identity.

Blancpain Villeret Ultraplate

The salmon shade is a newcomer to the Villeret collection, introducing a note of warmth to a family traditionally associated with silvered and opaline dials. Yet even here Blancpain has resisted the temptation for excess. The dial remains unmistakably Villeret, retaining the family’s measured style. Cased in stainless steel, this version pairs the dial’s pinkish tone with black-treated 18ct gold numerals and an anthracite nubuck strap. The same restrained approach applies to the rest of the 38mm layout, which inherits the brand’s updated 2025 design details from the resized gold indices and modern JB monogram at 12 o’clock to the date window at 3.

Blancpain Villeret Ultraplate

The salmon dial may attract the most attention, but it represents only one part of a broader launch. Alongside it sits a more traditional gold-toned opaline dial in steel, a red-gold version and a boutique-exclusive steel-and-yellow-gold reference paired with an olive-green strap.

Blancpain Villeret Ultraplate

In addition to the Ultraplates, a brace of diamond-set Phases de Lune in steel or 18ct red gold has also been unveiled with opaline dial, diamond hour markers and a pointer date indicated via a blue serpentine hand. Few complications are more closely associated with Blancpain than the smiling moonphase that has been part of the manufacture’s visual identity since the early 1980s. The new 29.2mm references continue that tradition in a gold-toned opaline livery, carrying forward a complication that has become inseparable from the collection itself.

Blancpain Villeret Phases de Lune

But while the temptation is to think of Villeret purely as Blancpain’s classical collection – Roman numerals, moonphases and slim dress proportions – the reality is so much more.

In 1983, the Swiss watch industry was still recovering from the effects of the quartz crisis. Across Switzerland, manufacturers were abandoning traditional watchmaking in favor of battery-powered alternatives. Mechanical watches appeared increasingly disconnected from the future. Under the stewardship of Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet, the revived Blancpain placed traditional mechanical watchmaking at the center of its identity. The Complete Calendar Moonphase became the symbol of that decision. Its display combined indications for day, date, month and phases of the moon in a format that felt entirely removed from the digital age, while establishing the design language that continues to define Villeret today.

Many brands preserve their heritage through reissues and anniversary pieces, but Blancpain chose to use Villeret as a platform for exploration. Beneath the familiar dials and classical proportions, the collection became home to some of the most ambitious watchmaking of the modern era.

Blancpain Villeret Phases de Lune

Blancpain Villeret Phases de Lune

The Villeret Tourbillon Carrousel remains one of the clearest examples. Introduced in 2013, it brought together two mechanisms that had spent more than a century travelling along separate paths. By that point the tourbillon was well established within contemporary watchmaking. The carrousel, patented by Bahne Bonniksen in 1892, was something far rarer. Blancpain had already revived it with the world’s first flying carrousel wristwatch in 2008. The Tourbillon Carrousel took the idea further, combining the two systems within a single movement and linking them through a differential. The watch was not simply a technical exercise. It represented a conversation between two competing solutions to the same watchmaking problem.

Blancpain Villeret Tourbillon Carrousel

A different expression of that thinking had already arrived in 2012 with the Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar. Developed over five years, it combined the Gregorian calendar with traditional Chinese calendrical indications including the zodiac signs, lunar months, double hours and the five elements. Few Swiss manufactures would have attempted such a project. Fewer still would have incorporated it into a classical dress watch collection. It remains one of the most original calendar watches of the modern era.

Blancpain Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar

Looking back, these watches reveal something important about Villeret. The collection has rarely been used to chase trends. Instead, it has become a place where Blancpain explores ideas that sit outside the mainstream of contemporary watchmaking.

Blancpain Villeret Phases de Lune

For much of the past decade, the watch industry has been consumed by steel sports watches, integrated bracelets, and increasingly obvious expressions of luxury. Blancpain has largely ignored that path. By continuing to invest in complex, niche mechanisms that require years of development for a relatively small audience, the manufacture remains an outlier. These new Villeret models might lack the flash of the industry’s more flamboyant releases, but they serve as a sharp reminder of what Blancpain does best – make watches for people who still value classical watchmaking on its own merits.

Tech specs: Blancpain Villeret Ultraplate 38mm

Reference 6224N
Movement Automatic Blancpain Calibre 1150; 100-hour power reserve; silicon hairspring; 210 components; 3 Hz frequency
Functions Hours, minutes and seconds; date
Case 38mm stainless steel or 18k red gold; 8.35mm thick; 30m of water resistance
Dial Sunburst salmon or gold-toned opaline
Strap Nubuck or alligator leather with quick-change system
Price USD 12,700 (steel); USD 26,100 (18k red gold)

Tech specs: Blancpain Villeret Phases de Lune 29.2mm

Reference 6106N
Movement Automatic Blancpain calibre 913QL; 40-hour power reserve; silicon hairspring; 246 components; 3 Hz frequency
Functions Hours, minutes and seconds; date; moonphase
Case 29.2mm stainless steel or 18k red gold; 10.35mm thick; diamond-set bezel; 30m of water resistance
Dial Gold-toned opaline
Strap Alligator leather with quick-change system (blue for steel; brown for red gold)
Price USD 20,300 (steel); USD 29,000 (18k red gold)