Villeret Moon Phases

— Press Release —

Under embargo until June 25, 2026

The Thinnest Argument

The most persuasive dress watches are the ones you forget you are wearing.

Now in 38 mm – alongside the emblematic 40 mm – the Villeret Ultraplate offers its quiet proportion to more wrists than ever: the right size, the one that disappears once worn. It arrives with a first for the collection, a sunburst salmon dial paired with an anthracite nubuck strap, and a boutique-only study in contrast: steel, yellow gold indexes, and an olive-green nubuck strap.

— Key takeaways —

• A new 38 mm case for the Villeret Ultraplate (three hands, date) – added alongside the emblematic 40 mm, in stainless steel or 18 ct red gold.

• Autumn 2025 redesigns expand to the new 38 mm case: refined 18 ct gold numerals, the JB monogram at twelve, slender Super-LumiNova® hands, a larger date window, a gold open-worked oscillating weight.

• A first for Villeret: a sunburst salmon dial in a stainless steel case, with black-treated 18 ct gold numerals and a matching anthracite nubuck strap.

• A boutique-exclusive two-tone reference: stainless steel case, solid 18 ct yellow-gold numerals, gold-toned opaline dial, olive-green nubuck strap.

• Two Villeret Phases de Lune in 29.2 mm, carrying Blancpain’s signature moon phase, with diamond-set bezel and indexes.

• Automatic manufacture calibres 1150 and 913QL with silicon hairspring, Haute Horlogerie finishing, tool-free interchangeable straps and buckles, 5-year warranty.

The Right Size

The most convincing argument is rarely the loudest. The Villeret Ultraplate has always made its case through restraint: an ultra-thin automatic movement, a case that asks for no attention, a presence measured. Today that restraint is offered in a new 38 mm, alongside the 40 mm that remains the heart of the collection. The right size, after all, is a personal matter: the one that suits the wrist. One is never overdressed or underdressed with a Villeret – whichever one chooses.

A First in Salmon

For the first time, Villeret wears salmon. A sunburst dial whose warmth shifts through the day between copper, rose and gold, it is set in stainless steel, restraint and warmth in the same timepiece. Its 18 ct gold numerals are treated in a new black finish and echoed by an anthracite nubuck strap. On a collection whose vocabulary runs to opaline and silvered tones, salmon is an event: not a flourish, but a new word in a familiar language. Those who prefer the quieter register will find it in the gold-toned opaline dial alongside it.

Reserved for the Boutiques One reference makes a quieter kind of statement. Available only in Blancpain boutiques, it pairs a stainless-steel case with solid 18 ct yellow-gold numerals, a gold-toned opaline dial, and an olive-green nubuck alligator strap: saddle-cut and hand-stitched, precious and modest in the same breath. The contrast is deliberate: steel and gold, classicism and a colour Villeret has rarely worn. It is the sort of detail a collector notices first.

The Detail, Refined

The aesthetic language introduced across Villeret last autumn now reaches the 38 mm case. The Roman numerals, resized for balance, are solid 18 ct gold satin-finished upper surfaces with polished bevels on the edges. The traditional XII gives way to the JB monogram, for Jehan-Jacques Blancpain. Slender hands carry Super-LumiNova® for readability after dark. At three o’clock, a larger date window.

Through the sapphire case back, an open-worked oscillating weight in red gold (on red gold models) or yellow gold (on steel models) reveals the automatic manufacture calibre 1150 and its 100-hour power reserve.

A Conviction, Since 1983

The right size is not a new idea to Villeret: it is the oldest one. In 1983, when much of the industry was turning to quartz, Blancpain went the other way and did so with the smallest complete calendar moon phase of its time in just 34 mm. It was a deliberate act of faith in mechanical watchmaking: proof that a watch could be an object of craft, beauty and emotion rather than a piece of electronics. That single timepiece carried the codes – the double-stepped bezel, the understatement, the moon with a face – that the collection still wears today, though it would not be given the name Villeret until 2002.

What followed, across the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, was one of the most inventive chapters in Swiss watchmaking: a succession of firsts, complications and ultra-thin constructions, made in modest, classical proportions and a spirit of discretion. A new generation of collectors has since rediscovered these early Villeret pieces – drawn, as it happens, to exactly the qualities this 38 mm chapter sets out to honour: restraint, proportion, and the conviction that the most timeless watch is the one that never raised its voice.

The Moon, in 29.2 mm

Few complications belong to a Maison the way the moon phase belongs to Blancpain. Alongside the 38 mm, the Villeret Phases de Lune appears in a 29.2 mm case carrying that signature. Within an enlarged aperture, a blue ceramic disc sets off an applied, domed and satin-finished 18 ct gold moon with its distinctive face; a diamond-set bezel and indexes catch the light around it, and a blue serpentine hand marks the date. Beneath, the secured, automatic manufacture calibre 913QL allows the calendar to be adjusted at any time without risk to the movement.

Designed to be worn

Faithful to tradition, Villeret continues to evolve where it is worn. A tool-free system allows straps and buckles to be changed effortlessly, with nothing more than the touch of a fingertip; the hand-stitched alligator comes in beige, anthracite, honey, blue and olive green. The watch adapts to the day with effortless ease.

For more than forty years, Villeret has stood for the same values: proportion, substance, consistency. In 38 mm, it expresses them with even greater confidence and understatement.