Blancpain Villeret Ref 0021-1418 in 18K YG from 1992 with caliber 21

Blancpain Villeret Ref 0021-1418 in 18K YG from 1992 with caliber 21

Beautiful Blancpain Villeret with reference 0021-1418 with round white dial and yellow gold Roman numerals for each hour. It is a Swiss Made model. The watch has gold hands with Sword style. The crown comes with the Blancapain logo. It is a 18K yellow gold case with exhibition sapphire case back with engraved around “Blancpain – N 446. The watch comes with a manual winding movement with caliber Blancpain 21 and 18 jewels. At that time, it was the thinnest movement in the world. The watch comes with a brand new black alligator strap and 18K YG Blancpain buckle. The watch comes with the original invoice and warranty booklet.

History

Blancpain was founded in 1735 by Jehan-Jacques Blancpain in the village of Villeret in Switzerland. He started making parts and then pocket watches. Blancpain became successful throughout the years and even more in 1931 when it introduced its famous rectangular “Rolls” automatic wristwatch. The long reign of the founding family came to an end in 1932 with the death of Frederic-Emile Blancpain. Because of the lack of family successors, the business was run for the 50 coming years under the name of Rayville. During that time, the famous “Fifty Fathoms” was created in 1953, a technical prowess as the watch was water-resistant to 200 meters. In 1970, Rayville was taking over by the Swiss Watch Group SSIH. In 1982, an Omega employee, Jean-Claude Biver and the movement manufacturer, Jacques Piguet bought the Blancpain name. In 1983, its moon-phase contributed to the reborn of the mechanical wristwatches. Then followed a minute repeater. In 1989, Blancpain introduced a never seen before caliber, an automatic chronograph with split seconds and date. The top watch of the Blancpain collection is the reference 1735, a limited edition of 30 watches. It fits a perpetual calendar, split-seconds chronograph, and tourbillon and minute repeater. In 1992, the Swatch group acquires Blancpain. It remains a company with many different models including alarms, equation of time display and the exclusive manual wound caliber 1330, with its three mainspring barrels, that runs autonomously for a week in a single wind.

Technical details

Manual winding movement with Blancpain caliber 21 (Frederic Piguet 21) with 18 jewels, 18,000 A/h and 42 hours of power reserve. At that time, it was the thinnest movement in the world.

Measurements

Diameter excluding winding crown: 33.50mm


Length including lugs: 38mm