Blancpain Caliber 13P8

The Blancpain caliber 13P8 is a 4-hander, no-date, automatic movement found in the brand’s Fifty Fathoms Gombessa Tech 70th Anniversary Act 2 model (47mm diameter, titanium, $28,000 USD) that was released on February 16, 2023.

This in-house caliber is adjusted in 6 positions from the factory. It has 35 jewels with a total of 204 parts. The 13P8 also has an extra long power reserve of 120 hours, thanks to its 3-barrel design.

3 Hour Dive-Timer:

The cal. 13P8 is equipped with a 3 hour dive-time complication, which has a fourth hand (similar to a GMT) that rotates every 3 hours. Combined with a unique layout on the bezel, this feature makes it easy to time a dive.

Below you can see the markers on the bezel that work in unison with the Dive-Time hand: 30 (minutes), 1 (hour), 1:30 (1.5 hours), 2 (hours), 2:30 (2.5 hours).

Gombessa Expeditions:

You may notice that the 18K gold rotor is signed Gombessa Expeditions. Here is more about what that means:

“Laurent Ballesta’s Gombessa project focuses on studying some of the rarest, most elusive marine creatures and phenomena on Earth. Ballesta and his team use state-of-the-art closed-circuit rebreather diving techniques to reach extreme depths and bring back unique scientific data, photographs, and videos. Their activities are consistently marked by triple challenges of a technical, scientific and artistic nature. To date, there have been five Gombessa expeditions, all underwritten by Blancpain.” –source

Front and Back:

Despite what it looks like in the first image above, the 13P8 is an automotive movement. The image simply shows the movement with the automatic wind unit removed. This is to show the complete finishing of the movement without being obstructed by the rotor.

How to Reset the Dive-Time Hand?

You can’t. That’s one of the cons of this movement. Rather than setting the hand independently, you’re supposed to rotate the bezel to line up the diamond shaped marker with the hand in its current position. From there, you can begin to calculate your 3 hour dive time. If you thought that’s what the crown at 10:00 is for, you’re mistaken. The crown at 10:00 is for the helium release valve.

Video:

Additional Images:

Watches with this movement:

Additional Resources:

• Fifty Fathoms 70th Anniversary press-release (pdf)
• Blancpain official 13P8 page
• Blancpain official Fifty Fathoms Gombessa Tech page