Favre Leuba

Founded in 1737 by Abraham Favre, a man later named "Master Watchmaker of Le Locle", Favre Leuba has been at the core of the Swiss watch world for Over 285 years. Gaining prominence throughout the 18th and 19th centuries through its highly complex pocket watches, Favre Leuba won various awards in the 1850s and became the first Swiss watch company to enter the Indian market in 1865. The Maison then parlayed this success into further international acclaim in the 1900s, introducing many of the pieces and collections that serve as inspirations for the models produced today.

Perhaps the brand's most famous model came in 1962 with the introduction of the Bivouac, the world’s first mechanical wristwatch with a barometer for altimetry and air pressure measurement. This complication became critical on many famous mountaineering and altitude-related expeditions, including Walter Bonatti and the Genevan Michel Vaucher's successful scaling of Pointe Whymper's (4,196 m) north face in the Grandes Jorasses for the first time in 1964. The watch was also worn when he conquered the most direct route of the north face of the Matterhorn.

Following such a useful and new complication, Favre Leuba then created the Bathyscape in 1968, the world's first mechanical wristwatch that displays both dive time and dive depth!

Favre Leuba also has a very intertwined history with other Swiss watch brands, many of which are still popular today. For example, the Company acquired the name and facilities of Bovet in 1948 and produced watches under the name "Favre Leube Bovet" for the next two years. A little over 20 years later, in 1969, Favre Leube purchased SAPIC group, which owned Jaeger Le-Coultre at the time. During this tenure, development of the Reverso and Memovox saw Favre Leuba branding.

After the quartz crisis in the 1980s the Favre family sold the brand and it wasn't until 2016, with the release of the Raider Harpoon, an amazing and very innovative dive watch, did we see the name come back... and with purpose! Throughout the next eight years, through a few key releases, the Favre Leuba story was revived and officially re-launched in 2024.

Today, the Company is already back to its old ways - creating incredible, fun, and attainable timepieces capable of winning award nominations and collector interest alike. In 2025, the Company launched its first ever skeletonized timepiece, the Chief Skeleton and the very next year, in 2026, the Chief Skeleton earned Favre Leuba's first ever nomination in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, GPHG, in the Challenge Watch category. This is a testament to both the brilliant innovation and craftsmanship found in every Favre Leuba piece!