This is one of just a few currently known unnumbered Blancpain cases from the 'Six Masterpieces', very likely prototype yellow gold example. The caseback photo here has not been altered for privacy, the caseback of this example reads 'No ' without any number. Case 'No 1' of the Six Masterpieces belongs to a set sold recently. A handful of case 'No 0' examples have been known to the community for some time. Mr. Jean-Claude Biver is rumored to have a small collection of these personally and one has appeared at auction. For many years it was assumed that 'No 0' examples were the earliest cases. Until these.
No one is certain the exact provenance of the unnumbered examples. Many suspect these are the prototype watches used in factory testing and that a few may have been given as commemorative gifts to the watchmakers themselves. Given the scarcity, it is assumed that most unnumbered examples were saved for Blancpain's own archives and never went to sale. In any event, this is the very earliest yellow gold 5395, very likely the first ever made. It is a watch that feels quite significant to hold, the start of a legacy that even decades later, we're still only beginning to appreciate.
After purchase by Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet (son of ébauche maker Frédéreic Piguet) in 1981, modern Blancpain began with the campaign, 'Since 1735 there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be.' Their return to market was centered around complicated mechanical watchmaking, in a saga of development that would come to be known as the 'Six Masterpieces'. Starting in 1983 lasting until 1989, the brand then developed a ref. 6595 Complete Calendar Moonphase, 0021 Ultra-Thin Time Only, 5395 Perpetual Calendar, 0033 Minute Repeater, 1185/6 Chronograph/Split Seconds, and 0023 Flying Tourbillon in the same thin 34mm case design and in that chronological order.
The ref. 5395 Perpetual Calendar was the third released, in 1986, and was at the time a remarkable achievement at 34mm and just 9mm thin. The stepped case, thinness, and curved lugs make this one of the most subtle QPs in the world on wrist. Its eggshell dial sports applied solid gold numerals, luminous baton hands, and a smiling moonphase. The black print and midnight blue moonphase paint is applied with the kind of precision that will reward extremely close loupe study. This example has a case with slightly thicker lugs as seen in early production and, rather unusually, a taller crown normally only seen on the 0033 Minute Repeater.
More examples and information may emerge about these unnumbered cases in coming years, but we know for certain that they are something quite special and rarely seen if at all. The 5395 is an extremely discreet and elegant 34mm perpetual calendar that represents a celebratory end to the quartz crisis. But this exact 5395 is a very significant watch to Blancpain's history as an innovator in watchmaking and the development of their own perpetual calendar from 1982 until 1986.
