Favre-Leuba
Favre-Leuba is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury wristwatches headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, and formerly a pioneer in watch design, manufacturing and distribution.The brand was established in the year 1737, following the registration of Abraham Favre as a watchmaker. This positions it as the second-oldest watch brand in Switzerland, surpassed only by Blancpain, which was founded in 1735. History An archival document states that Abraham Favre was a watchmaker with his own workshop on 13 March 1737. It was his son, also by the name of Abraham Favre, who turned his father's occupation into a business. In 1792 Abraham Favre, and his two sons, Frederic & Henry-Louis, founded the company A.Favre & Fils in Le Locle. From the beginning Abraham Favre concentrated on improving the technology of his watches, their properties at different temperatures and the materials used in watchmaking, to make more reliable and accurate movements. Henry-Augustus, Frederic Favre's son and Abraham Favre's grandson, expanded the family business by collaboration with Auguste Leuba, a member of a family of watchmakers & merchants, to create the brand name Favre-Leuba in 1815. The 19-year-old Henry-Augustus broadened the family business to the world market. Fritz Favre, who married Adele-Fanny Leuba in 1855, expanded the business across Europe, the Americas & Asia. He participated in various national and international exhibitions, such as the Universal Exhibition in London in 1851, the New York Fair in 1853, and also won many accolades for the brand. India became a very important market for Favre-Leuba and this was the first Swiss company from the industry to have established itself in that country. Henry A Favre, born in 1908, part of the seventh generation, continued to grow and develop the business by setting up offices and employing representatives across South America, Africa, the Middle-East, Far-East and European markets. He, along with his father & other predecessors from the sixth generation, was responsible for the launch of many iconic pieces. Around 1925, Favre-Leuba produced a single button chronograph and created the Reverso mechanism in 1940. The company made innovations, such as the FL101 movement manufactured in 1955. In 1957, they designed their automatic calibers, FL103 & 104. The new FL251 caliber, an extra-flat, twin-barrel with a central second hand and a power reserve of 50 hours was launched in 1962. In 1962, the hand winding wristwatch, Bivouac, which was the first ever mechanical watch with altimeter & aneroid barometer was launched. Paul-Emile Victor was one of the first to wear this piece during his Antarctica expedition while Michel Vaucher & Walter Bonatti used it while summiting the Grandes Jorasses in the Alps. In 1964 one of the first ever dive watches, Deep Blue, water resistant up to 200m, was launched, followed by the Bathy in 1968, the first mechanical watch that not only indicated the dive time and duration but also accurately measured the dive depth. In 1968, Favre-Leuba added an automatic winding to its double-barrel calibers, making it one of the first brands to use this combination in series