Social media ain’t all bad. Prior to 2022, I can’t say that I knew anything about Blancpain. Like many watch obsessives in the 2010’s, I diligently watched (and re-watched) Jean Claude Biver’s Talking Watches episode, but I came away from the episode drooling over his vintage Patek Philippe collection instead of absorbing his inspiring story about revitalizing Blancpain. That video was released in 2014, and eight years later, Blancpain finally entered my watch consciousness after an Instagram photo in my Explore page stopped me mid-scroll.
To be clearer, what really caught my eye was the dial: made of iridescent Mother of Pearl (“MoP”), it appeared different in every picture depending on the lighting. The watch was the Blancpain Villeret 1186, a 34mm split-seconds chronograph built during the brand’s “Six Masterpieces” era, a period that defined what neovintage Blancpain would become. It’s a watch that deserves far more attention than it gets today, both for its technical significance and for the remarkable value these early Villeret complications still represent. But again, I didn’t know any of this in 2022…I just couldn’t take my eyes off the dial.
It would be another three years before the same watch – the only reference 1186 with a Mother of Pearl dial to surface publicly – made it’s way into my collection.
Blancpain’s Reawakening
Before I talk about this specific watch, it’s worth providing some context about Blancpain’s place in the watch world at the time of its manufacture. Most people don’t realize that Blancpain is the oldest watch brand in existence, founded in 1735 in the Swiss village of Villeret. For over two centuries it was known for elegant, hand-crafted mechanical watches, but by the late 1970s, the quartz crisis had brought the company to its knees. Production all but ceased, and the once-proud name was nearly forgotten.
In 1982, Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet (the son of movement maker Frédéric Piguet) bought Blancpain for a trivial sum – 21,500 Swiss Francs, to be exact – and set out to rebuild it as a pure expression of traditional mechanical watchmaking. After buying the Blancpain name, Biver and Piguet charted a course that went against the quartz-driven momentum of the era. The idea was simple but audacious: create a full line of mechanical complications in traditional, compact cases and in precious metals. Their marketing tag line completed the picture: “Since 1735 there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be.”
From that vision came the “Six Masterpieces,” a series of 34mm watches, each representing one grand complication. The 1185 was the chronograph; the 1186, its more complex sibling, adding a split-seconds mechanism on top.
The result was the world’s first automatic split-seconds chronograph, and with a thickness of just 6.75mm, the company was able to achieve a technical milestone without breaking from the refined, classical proportions that defined the Villeret line.
Inside sits Blancpain’s calibre 1186, based on the F. Piguet 1185, a vertical clutch, column wheel automatic chronograph. The rattrapante (split-seconds) mechanism was also integrated without a significant increase in height, which was an extraordinary feat in the early 1990s. In fact, Blancpain held the record for thinnest automatic movement for nearly 30 years until Bulgari bested that mark in 2019 with the Octo Finissimo chronograph GMT.
Why It Matters Now
Even with rising interest in neovintage complicated watches and independents, the Six Masterpieces from Blancpain continue to fly under the radar. Consider what’s on offer with this reference 1186:
- A precious-metal case from Blancpain’s most meaningful modern era
- A split-seconds automatic chronograph with genuine horological importance (as noted above, the movement held a world record for over 30 years!)
- Limited production run
- And, in this example, an extremely rare dial configuration: the only Mother of Pearl example to surface publicly
When new, this reference retailed for 36,000 Swiss Francs before the addition of the special dial (the equivalent of 50,000 CHF today), on par with the most complicated dress pieces from Patek, Vacheron, or Audemars Piguet. Today, however, they often trade well below what their movement complexity and finishing would suggest, and that imbalance creates an opportunity for astute collectors.
On the Wrist
From a technical perspective, the 1186 quietly stood at the forefront of complicated watchmaking. From an aesthetic one, however, it stayed quite conservative – perhaps too much so for the spotlight it deserved.
While I have always favored smaller diameter watches (36-38mm for the win), I had only owned one 34mm watch previously (a Tudor Ranger, which left my collection in favor of the slightly larger 1016 Explorer). There is no denying that the 34mm reference 1186 wears smaller than most modern chronographs, but it doesn’t feel slight. The weight of the precious metal gives it presence and the curvature of the lugs and caseback create a substantial profile on the wrist.
And that dial…every light shift reveals something new – soft pastel, silver, champagne, even aqua – and the rarity of a Mother of Pearl dial only adds to the experience. Exotic dials were offered in other Blancpain “Masterpieces” of the era, but aside from this example, none have surfaced for the split-seconds chronograph. Whether a special-order piece or a rare in-house variation, it makes this watch a true one-off (for now).
How the Villeret Found Me
So that brings us back to where we started: a post on Instagram in 2022. This little watch has been a journeyman over the past couple years, starting initially with WBLDN (where I saw it posted initially) and then making its way about a year later to a US-based dealer, Tahoma Watches. While the watch sold very quickly, I reached out to express interest should they ever come across another example – admittedly, I didn’t have high hopes, seeing as how there had been exactly one Mother of Pearl dial uncovered to-date.
Lo and behold, the owner sold it back roughly one year later and I was contacted by Vivek (owner of Tahoma Watches) asking whether I was still interested in the watch. Shortly thereafter, I became the watch’s fourth owner in three years, which is almost hard to comprehend given the quality and value that the watch commands.
Yes, the Villeret’s design is conservative and Blancpain as a brand does not have a deep following in collector circles, but as the market continues to rediscover the value of neovintage watchmaking, pieces like this will eventually have their moment. Until then, I’m happy for it to stay what it is: a quiet masterpiece hiding in plain sight.
