The short answer
A Fifty Fathoms 5050 copy is worth buying when the case keeps the 45mm width and the sloped profile, the bezel insert is real sapphire with a lume pip sitting dead at 12, and the dial printing holds up under a phone light. Movement decoration matters far less than those three. I would rather own a plain, honest copy with a clean dial than one with a heavily engraved rotor and a bezel that glows in the wrong place.
Fifty Fathoms 5050 Reproduction: What Matches and What Does Not
What the 5050 actually is
The reference 5050 sits in Blancpain's modern Fifty Fathoms family: a 45mm titanium case, a domed sapphire bezel insert, 300m of rated water resistance, and a big date that reads through two windows at 6 o'clock. It is a big watch on paper and a comfortable one on the wrist, because titanium keeps the weight down and the lugs curve in close. Lug width is 23mm, which limits your strap choices more than most people expect.
That mix is exactly what makes it hard to copy. Titanium is light and slightly matte. Steel versions of the same case look right in photos and feel wrong on the arm. The sapphire bezel is another tell. Most budget copies use glass or coated acrylic, and the edge catches light differently once you have both in your hand.
Fifty Fathoms 5050 Lookalike: The Ultimate Guide
Case and bezel: where most copies lose
Start with thickness. The genuine watch runs roughly 15mm tall, and that height comes from the domed crystal and the caseback, not from a slab of extra metal in the middle. Copies that come in at 17mm or more sit like a puck. You notice it in the first minute, usually in a shirt cuff.
Fifty Fathoms 5050 Version: What That Reference Actually Means
Then the bezel. Check three things:
- The insert is sapphire, so the numerals look sunk into glass rather than printed on top of it.
- The lume pip lines up with 12 and is filled, not painted.
- The bezel turns with firm clicks and almost no back play.
Dial, hands, and lume
Look at the dial in daylight, not under a desk lamp. The black should be flat and deep, the applied indices should sit level, and the two date windows at 6 should match in size with an even gap between them. A crooked big date is the flaw I see most often on 5050 copies, and it is not something a local watchmaker can cheaply fix.
Lume is the second tell. Charge the watch for 30 seconds and look at it in a dark room. Good lume burns bright and fades evenly over hours. Cheap lume is patchy, dim, and gone in twenty minutes.
The movement
Most 5050 copies run a Miyota or Seagull automatic with an added big-date module. That is fine. What matters is whether the date flips cleanly at midnight, whether the rotor is quiet, and whether the watch holds within about ten seconds a day. Ask the seller for a timegrapher photo. If they cannot produce one, that tells you something about the rest of the listing.
Strap and water resistance
The original ships on sailcloth or rubber with a signed buckle. Copies usually get the texture roughly right and the hardware roughly wrong. A soft, dense sailcloth strap with a brushed tang buckle is worth a little extra.
Treat water resistance as decoration. Even copies that claim 300m are rarely pressure tested, and a mid-tier watch is not worth a swimming pool. Rinse it, wear it in the rain, keep it out of the sea.
Checklist before you pay
- Real photos of the actual watch: front, back, and side profile.
- Case thickness under 16mm.
- Sapphire bezel insert with an aligned pip.
- Straight big date with matching windows.
- Clean dial print and level indices.
- A timegrapher reading or a stated daily rate.
- A return policy you can actually use.
Bottom line
The 5050 copy is a case-and-bezel game. Get the proportions and the sapphire right and the watch reads well from across a room. Chase the rotor engraving first and you will end up with something that photographs beautifully and disappoints on the wrist.