Hodinkee announced their latest collaboration earlier today. That?s a sentence that folks who do this stuff for a living have had to get used to writing – including today?s announcement, Hodinkee has launched five collaborations since late October. That?s a very full fall season, and those new watches are quite varied in their styles and price points. The watch we?ll be looking at today, a new diver made in partnership with Blancpain, feels like a year-end feather in the cap – a spare-no-expense project with a focus on getting the details just right. Let?s take a closer look at the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms MIL-SPEC Limited Edition.

If this watch looks familiar to you, it?s probably because it bears a striking resemblance to the Tribute to Fifty Fathoms MIL-SPEC, released in 2017. The Fifty Fathoms is an immensely important watch in the history of dive watches, and as with any tool watch, those produced for the military are highly desired by collectors. The Fifty Fathoms was adopted by the French and U.S. Navies in the 1950s, and eventually found its way to the wrist of Jacques Yves Cousteau and other serious, professional divers. 
The 40.3mm case on the wrist

The defining characteristic of those early MIL-SPEC watches, one shared by the new MIL-SPEC LE, is the white and orange moisture indicator on the dial. The way it works is relatively simple – if moisture gets into the case, the white half of the circle begins to turn orange. If you l...