I’m starting this thread to share my excitement about my recent purchase, but also to flag the excellent range of complications Blancpain offer to women with small wrists.
I’ve had a stainless steel Cartier Tank Francais for 13 years and it has been a joy but it is a quartz watch.
I own a couple of 19th century Swiss cylinder musical boxes and the history of musical boxes is unsurprisingly allied to watchmaking and I began to think I’d like a watch with a mechanical movement. I also love Dava Sobel’s Longitude, so that was another seed planted.
I wanted a watch with a complication and decided my must-have was a moon phase complication. I soon discovered that as a very small, fine boned woman, the possibilities were surprisingly limited. I can’t carry off a watch case with a diameter over 34mm and the majority of watches with complications start at 37mm and higher.
A further hurdle was discovering that makers seem to have decided that women who buy watches want diamond bezels. Well I do like diamonds generally but diamond bezels are too much on me as I like to wear my watches all the time and I’m quite low key in the way I dress. My first stop was JLC where I tried on the Rendezvous Moon - lovely, but I just couldn’t quite get past the diamonds on the bezel and at 34mm it was very showy on me.
I stepped away from the JLC and came across the Blancpain Villaret and Ladybird collections. To cut an already too long story short, I found all I’d wanted and more in the Ladybird Quantieme Complet; the moon phase complication plus a complete calendar all in a 33mm steel case. The mother of pearl is beautiful and diamonds on the bezel are optional depending on the model. I bought it before Christmas and I couldn’t be happier. It has 100 hours reserve power which is astonishing really, particularly at this price point. It is water resistant to 3 bar although as I have the leather strap I won’t be testing that. The BP Quantieme Complet design is very clever; the ogee bezel creates an optical illusion making the case appear thinner, and smaller than it actually is, a plus if it takes up a lot of your wrist.
I have the kind of skin tone that only suits white metal but the rose gold Quantieme Complet version of my watch with the diamond bezel is absolutely stunning for anyone who can wear it.
Blancpain offer a really excellent range of models with complications for women in comparison to other makers at under 35mm case diameter and I’m really grateful for that and want to flag it here. Aside from the Ladybird collection which offers different options of metal, diamonds, colour and complications, there is the classic Villaret collection which also offers complications from as small a case diameter as 29mm.
I’m adding one photo I took of the JLC Rendezvous on me. No disrespect to the watch, it’s lovely, but you can see how flashy it looks on me and it was much more so in the flesh as the diamonds are very sparkly.
I’ve had a stainless steel Cartier Tank Francais for 13 years and it has been a joy but it is a quartz watch.
I own a couple of 19th century Swiss cylinder musical boxes and the history of musical boxes is unsurprisingly allied to watchmaking and I began to think I’d like a watch with a mechanical movement. I also love Dava Sobel’s Longitude, so that was another seed planted.
I wanted a watch with a complication and decided my must-have was a moon phase complication. I soon discovered that as a very small, fine boned woman, the possibilities were surprisingly limited. I can’t carry off a watch case with a diameter over 34mm and the majority of watches with complications start at 37mm and higher.
A further hurdle was discovering that makers seem to have decided that women who buy watches want diamond bezels. Well I do like diamonds generally but diamond bezels are too much on me as I like to wear my watches all the time and I’m quite low key in the way I dress. My first stop was JLC where I tried on the Rendezvous Moon - lovely, but I just couldn’t quite get past the diamonds on the bezel and at 34mm it was very showy on me.
I stepped away from the JLC and came across the Blancpain Villaret and Ladybird collections. To cut an already too long story short, I found all I’d wanted and more in the Ladybird Quantieme Complet; the moon phase complication plus a complete calendar all in a 33mm steel case. The mother of pearl is beautiful and diamonds on the bezel are optional depending on the model. I bought it before Christmas and I couldn’t be happier. It has 100 hours reserve power which is astonishing really, particularly at this price point. It is water resistant to 3 bar although as I have the leather strap I won’t be testing that. The BP Quantieme Complet design is very clever; the ogee bezel creates an optical illusion making the case appear thinner, and smaller than it actually is, a plus if it takes up a lot of your wrist.
I have the kind of skin tone that only suits white metal but the rose gold Quantieme Complet version of my watch with the diamond bezel is absolutely stunning for anyone who can wear it.
Blancpain offer a really excellent range of models with complications for women in comparison to other makers at under 35mm case diameter and I’m really grateful for that and want to flag it here. Aside from the Ladybird collection which offers different options of metal, diamonds, colour and complications, there is the classic Villaret collection which also offers complications from as small a case diameter as 29mm.
I’m adding one photo I took of the JLC Rendezvous on me. No disrespect to the watch, it’s lovely, but you can see how flashy it looks on me and it was much more so in the flesh as the diamonds are very sparkly.
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