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 production. The new movements were available with or without calendar function.

Florian A Favre & Eric A Favre, sons of Henry A Favre along with Frederic A Favre, grandson of Fritz-Augustus Favre, represented the eight generation. They were the Board of Directors of Favre-Leuba, until the management of the company passed out of the hands of the  family.

The challenge brought about by the relatively inexpensive quartz movement introduced in 1969 greatly increased competition for the company's comparatively expensive mechanical watches.

As a result, the family sold the company, which passed through different hands such as Benedom SA and LVMH.

In 2007, Favre-Leuba returned to the watch industry with the launch of three new models: The Mercury Collection.

On 16 November 2011, Titan Company Limited, the watch manufacturing company of the Tata Group, acquired the  brand Favre-Leuba.

After the sale to the Titan Group, they released new collections of watches in 2016, their Raider and Chief Collections, led by their flagship model, the Raider Harpoon.

At BaselWorld 2017 they launched the Raider Bivouac 9000. The only watch to measure altitude to 9000m mechanically, the Raider Bivouac 9000 was awarded the best watch in the New Star category by WatchStars. The 70 member jury comprising watch expert, journalists, collectors chose 35 watches and of this voted for the New Star 2018 winner.

In 2017, Favre-Leuba supported many athletes and explorers such as Arctic Mission led by Pen Hadow.

Favre-Leuba also became a partner of Satyarup Siddhanta who is the fifth Indian to have climbed the 7 summits.

The brand today has also collaborated with Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington who are professional mountaineers and will be using the Raider Bivouac 9000 in their expeditions in 2018. Ralph Weber, Nicolas Hojac, and Ricardo Feller are three Swiss athletes, who are partners of the brand.

In Japan, Favre-Leuba ambassador Sayuri Kinoshita has broken the world record of a constant no fin dive while Taisuke Kusunoki represents the brand in the sport of free ride skiing. 

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Bathy launched in 1968. This dive instrument was the first to display dive depth using a central hand. The brand pays homage to this namesake with the Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth, which measures and displays depth down to 120m, more than double that of the original Bathy.

On 20 May 2018, Adrian Ballinger and his team summited Mount Everest with an instrument watch designed for such adventures, the Raider Bivouac 9000. With this expedition, the Raider Bivouac 9000 created a new record as the only mechanical wrist watch equipped with an aneroid barometer, to work on Mount Everest.

References

External links
Ariel Adams, Favre-Leuba Raider Harpoon Watch With Slick Way Of Showing The Time ablogtowatch.com FEB 13, 2017 

Watch manufacturing companies of Switzerland
1737 establishments in Europe
Diving accessory equipment
Swiss watch brands
Titan Company