Favre Leuba

History of Favre Leuba

13th of March 1737, was a date that put Le Locle on the map of the Horology world unlike it ever was before. It is on this date that the first archival document states that Abraham Favre was a watchmaker with his own workshop. It was his son, also by the name of Abraham Favre, who perfected the art and took his Father’s passion into a business that is today globally known. In 1792 Abraham Favre, along with his two sons, Frederic & Henry-Louis, founded the company A.Favre & Fils. From the very beginning Abraham Favre concentrated on improving the technology of his watches, their properties at different temperatures as well as the materials used in watch making, thus making more reliable and accurate movements. This made possible many watches thus being well ahead of its time

Henry-Augustus, Frederic Favre’s son and Abraham Favre’s grandson, expanded this family business into distant markets. This fourth generation Favre member collaborated with Auguste Leuba, a member of a family of watchmakers & merchants, to create the brand name Favre-Leuba in 1815. They traveled together across various countries, from Germany to Russia, from Cuba to the United States, from Brazil to Chile and many more. The 19 year old Henry-Augustus took this family run business to the world market and made known Favre-Leuba as we know of it today.

Fritz Favre, who married Adele-Fanny Leuba in 1855, was a worthy successor as he took the business into many more countries across Europe, Americas & Asia. He participated in various national & 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. It was his children, part of the sixth generation of Favre’s, who worked towards strengthening the brand across various markets, especially when Europe was facing challenging times. India became a very important market for Favre-Leuba and this was the first Swiss company from the industry to have established itself in the country.

Henry A Favre, born in 1908, part of the seventh generation, continued to grow & develop the business by setting up offices & employing representatives across South America, Africa, Middle-East, Far-East & European markets. He, along with his father & other predecessors from the sixth generation, was responsible for the launch of many iconic pieces as we know of today.

Around the year 1925, Favre-Leuba produced a single button chronograph and created the Reverso mechanism in 1940. It is under this team that the company made many distinguishing innovations, noteworthy being the FL101 movement manufactured in 1955. In 1957, they designed their automatic calibers, FL103 & 104. 1960 to 1968 was the golden era for Favre-Leuba. 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.

1964 experienced another grand launch, one of the first ever dive watches, Deep Blue, water resistant up to 200m. It was this same distinguished team who was also responsible for the launch of the famous 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 groundbreaking 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 esteemed family.

Renowned for its pioneering spirit, creativity, artful watch-making & a spirit of innovation displayed by all members across 8 generations, has made this brand name what it is today.

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

Milestones

1925: Developed the single button Chronograph wristwatch

1946: Developed an 18 carat, gold, manual winding wristwatch with triple calendar

1955: Production of a gold chronograph watch with calendar, moon phase, 30-minute and 12-hour counters

1955: Developed the FL 101 movement

1956: Developed the Sea King and Sea Chief models

1957: Launch of Datic wristwatches with FL 102 caliber and the Daymatic with automatic calibers FL103 and FL104

1960: Developed one of the first dive watches, Water Deep

1962: Developed the FL251, extra thin (2.95mm), twin barrel calibre with 50-hour power reserve

1962: Developed the Bivouac, first ever altimeter / barometer wristwatch.

1964: Developed Deep Blue, water resistant up to 200meters

1965: FL251 twin power calibre developed and launch of Sea King model

1966: Developed the first diving chronograph wristwatch

1968: Development of the model Bathy, first ever wristwatch with depth or pressure gauge for divers.

1968: Automatic winding for doubel-barrel calibers.

1968: Developed the Harpoon watch model

2016: The all new Raider Harpoon has been launched. A divers watch with a patented display of time.