Favre-Leuba
| Favre-Leuba | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1737 |
| Seat | Solothurn , Switzerland |
| Branch | Clocks |
| Website | favre-leuba.com |
Favre-Leuba is a Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches with headquarters in Solothurn . The cornerstone of the brand, which is one of the pioneers of the Swiss watch industry in terms of technical developments, watch design and distribution, was laid by Abraham Favre in Le Locle in 1737.
The return of Favre-Leuba
With the launch of the new collection with the two lines Raider and Chief, Favre-Leuba marked the return to the watch industry in 2016.
history
On March 13, 1737, Abraham Favre was first mentioned in an official document as a watchmaker with his own workshop in Le Locle, Switzerland. His son, who was also named Abraham, continued the business in the second generation. Together with his two sons Frédéric and Henry-Louis, he founded the A. Favre & Fils company in 1792. From the beginning, Abraham Favre concentrated on continuously improving the technology used in his watches, their functionality at different temperatures and the materials used, in order to manufacture ever more reliable and precise timepieces.
Henry-Auguste, Frédéric Favre's son and thus the fourth generation of the family, worked with Auguste Leuba's watch trade from Buttes in Val-de-Travers from 1815. The boss traveled around the world - from Germany to Russia, via Cuba to New York to Brazil and Chile - to expand the sales opportunities.
Fritz Favre, who married Adele-Fanny Leuba in 1855, continued on this path. At national and international exhibitions - such as the Universal Exhibition in London in 1851 or the New York Fair in 1853 - he won awards for the timepieces from his own studios. In 1865 and 1867 he also traveled to India and was the first Swiss watch manufacturer to launch his brand on the subcontinent, which was to quickly develop into an important sales market for Favre-Leuba. His children - already the sixth generation in the company - continued to build the brand, especially in Europe, which was going through difficult times.
Favre-Leuba manufactured single-pusher chronographs around 1925 and in 1955 Favre-Leuba developed its own manufacture movement FL101, followed two years later by the automatic calibers FL103 and FL104.
The years 1960 to 1968 were very successful for Favre-Leuba: The extra flat caliber FL251 from 1962 had two barrels, a central second and a power reserve of 50 hours. In 1962, the brand presented the Bivouac, the first mechanical watch with an aneroid barometer for measuring altitude and air pressure. This timepiece accompanied Paul-Emile Victor on his Antarctic expedition, while the Geneva mountain guide Michel Vaucher and the Italian alpinist Walter Bonatti used it to climb the Grandes Jorasses.
In 1963, the Deep Blue, one of the first diving watches, came onto the market. This was waterproof to a depth of 200 m. In 1968, the same team also designed the famous Bathy, the first mechanical watch that not only displayed the diving time, but also the current diving depth thanks to a pressure gauge.
In 1968 Favre-Leuba added an automatic winding mechanism to its groundbreaking double-spring mechanism - making the brand one of the first to use this combination in series. The new works were available with and without a calendar function.
Florian A. Favre and Eric A. Favre, sons of Henry A. Favre, together with Frédéric A. Favre, grandson of Fritz Auguste Favre, continued production as the eighth generation. The introduction of inexpensive quartz movements in 1969 plunged the Swiss watch industry into a serious crisis, which also posed major problems for Favre-Leuba.
As a result, the family sold the company, which then changed hands several times, including Benedom SA and LVMH. On November 16, 2011, Titan Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Indian Tata Group, took over the traditional Favre-Leuba brand and relocated its headquarters to Zug.
Milestones
- 1925 single-push chronograph
- 1946 Datora gold wristwatch with manual winding and calendar
- 1955 gold chronograph with calendar, moon phase, 30-minute and 12-hour counters
- 1955 Development of the FL 101 manufacture caliber
- 1956 Launch of the Sea King, Sea Raider and Sea Chief models
- 1957 Development of the automatic calibers FL103 and FL 104
- 1957 Launch of the Datic and Daymatic models with the caliber FL 102 and the automatic movements FL103 and FL104
- 1960 Development of the first Favre-Leuba diving watch Water Deep
- 1962 Development of the extra flat caliber FL251 with two barrels and a 50-hour power reserve
- 1962 Development of the Bivouac, the first wristwatch with an altimeter / barometer
- 1963 Launch of the Deep Blue diving watch, which is water-resistant to 200 m
- 1965 Presentation of the Sea King Twin Power with the caliber FL251
- 1966 Presentation of the diving chronograph
- 1968 Development of the Bathy, the first wristwatch with a depth / pressure gauge for divers
- 1968 Automatic winding for the brand's twin spring barrel movements
- 1968 Launch of the Harpoon model
- 2016 Launch of the Raider Harpoon. A diving watch with a patented time display
- 2017 Favre-Leuba celebrates the 280th brand anniversary at Baselworld with the new Raider Bivouac 9000
- 2018 The Raider Bivouac 9000 wins the Watchstars Prize in the “New Stars” category as the best new release in 2018. It is the only mechanical wristwatch in the world that can go up to 9000 m. ü. M. measures the height and can also be used as a barometer.
- 2018 Favre-Leuba celebrates the 50th birthday of the legendary Bathy diving watch, released in 1968, with the new Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth, which is the only mechanical wristwatch in the world that can measure and store depths of up to 120 m.