Best of Watches & Wonders 2026: Blancpain
Ref. 6654N
VILLERET COMPLETE CALENDAR MOONPHASE
The Villeret Complete Calendar Moonphase is where Blancpain makes its clearest argument for what the collection is actually about. This is not a watch that announces its complications; it wears them with the kind of composure that only comes from doing this since 1983, when the original complete calendar moonphase became one of the watches that helped pull Swiss mechanical watchmaking back from the brink of irrelevance.
The 2025 update is, true to form, a study in restraint. The 40mm case comes in 18ct red gold or stainless steel with a slimmer bezel, reworked lugs and a thinner profile than the previous generation. The double-stepped case remains, as do the Roman numeral indexes and leaf-shaped hands, both signatures that Blancpain has correctly resisted the temptation to modernise out of existence. The “JB” symbol now replaces the traditional 12, a small but considered acknowledgement of the founding date. The new gold hands are now solid rather than hollow, with luminescent inserts, which improves both legibility and the sense of quality in hand.
The dial colours are the most immediately visible change, with golden brown and opaline options that sit warmly against either case material. The moonphase aperture has been enlarged, the disc is ceramic, and the applied gold moon is domed and satin-finished, giving the display a presence it lacked in earlier iterations. The date window at 3 o’clock has been widened for better readability. A new openworked oscillating weight reveals the movement beneath, decorated with beveled edges in red or yellow gold depending on the reference.
Inside is the calibre 6654.4, a 321-component automatic movement measuring 32mm in diameter and 5.32mm in height, running at 28,800 vph with a 72-hour power reserve. The complete calendar displays day, date and moonphase, with Blancpain’s patented under-lug correctors allowing adjustment of all calendar indications at any time without risk of damage to the movement, simply by pressing with a fingertip. That patent dates to 2005 and remains one of the more practically useful quality-of-life features in complicated watchmaking. Straps are available in blue, honey or brown leather with a quick-change system, and the case is water resistant to 30 metres.
Ref. 6651N
VILLERET ULTRAPLATE
The Ultraplate makes a different kind of case. Where the Complete Calendar is Blancpain showing its complication credentials, the Ultraplate is the brand demonstrating that the most demanding thing to do is often the simplest. Hours, minutes, seconds and date, in a 40mm case measuring 8.70mm thick. That is the brief, and it is executed without equivocation.
The calibre 1151 is a 210-component automatic movement measuring 27.40mm in diameter and 3.25mm in height, running at 21,600 vph with a 100-hour power reserve, which is a notably generous reserve for a movement of this profile. The decorated bridges are finished to Haute Horlogerie standard with Côtes de Genève and hand chamfering throughout. The new openworked oscillating weight with beveled gold edges is visible through the sapphire caseback, and on a movement this slim the architecture has a clarity that more complicated calibres rarely achieve.
The case comes in 18ct red gold or stainless steel, with the same reworked double-stepped profile as the rest of the 2025 Villeret update. The dial is opaline or golden brown, the Roman numerals satin-finished on the surface and polished on the flanks, with the JB symbol at 12. The gold hands now carry luminescent inserts, and the date aperture at 3 o’clock has been enlarged to sit more harmoniously within the dial layout. Straps are in beige, honey or brown leather with the quick-change system, folding clasp, and 30 metres of water resistance.
The Ultraplate is, in the language of the collection, the purest sentence Blancpain knows how to write. It is also the one that requires the most confidence to put down without decoration.