Favre-Leuba
 | |
| Industry | Watch manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1737 |
| Headquarters | Zug, Switzerland |
| Products | Wristwatches |
| Website | www.favre-leuba.com |
Favre-Leuba is a Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches with headquarter in Zug. It was a pioneer in watch design, manufacturing and distribution, thus contributing immensely to the watchmaking industry in Switzerland. The foundation of the brand was laid in 1737 when Abraham Favre was first registered as a watch maker.
History of Favre Leuba
The 13 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 archival documents state that Abraham Favre was registered as a watchmaker. 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, in collaboration with Abraham-Louis Breguet, founded the company A.Favre & Sons. 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 & Abraham Favre’s grandson, expanded this family business into distant markets. This fourth generation Favre member along with his son Fritz Favre, collaborated with Auguste Leuba, a family of watchmakers & merchants, collaborated to form the 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, was a worthy successor as he took the business into many more countries across Europe, Americas & Asia. He also participated in various national & international exhibitions, winning 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 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, were responsible for the launch of many iconic pieces as we know of today.
It is under this team that the company made many distinguishing innovations, noteworthy being the FL101 movement made in 1956. In 1958, they designed their automatic calibers, FL103 & 104. 1960 to 1968 was the golden era for Favre-Leuba. The new FL251 caliber, a twin barrel, central second hand with a power reserve of 50 hours was launched in 1962.
In1962, 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 Vaucher & 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 50 in 1968, the first mechanical watch that not only indicated the dive time and duration but also accurately measured the dive depth
1968 witnessed another breakthrough with the development of the Twinmatic & Duomatic models that had twin-barrel movements, caliber FL 1162, with 36000 vib/hr balance frequency, giving the world timepieces with unparalleled accuracy
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, acquired the prestigious brand Favre-Leuba.
