Favre-Bulle Geneve
Alexandre Favre-Bulle was born in Geneva in 1994 and developed a passion for watchmaking as a young teenager. He graduated from the Ecole d'Horlogerie de Genève as a watchmaker in 2014, completing further studies in microtechniques in 2016, and spent his free time in those years sketching new watch modules and display concepts that remained, for the time being, only on paper. In 2019 he joined Rolex's dial manufacturing operation in Geneva, an experience that lasted roughly three years; by 2023 the pull to create something of his own had returned, and the first Favre-Bulle sketch was born. The company, FAVRE-BULLE, was formally registered in the Geneva Trade Register that August.
Two years of design, prototyping, presentations, photoshoots, and collaboration with independent partners followed before the brand offered its debut collection, Three Peaks, to the public in June 2025. Alexandre describes the collection in three words: 'minimalist, purposeful, refined.' Rather than the busy, motorsport-inflected chronograph look common among microbrands, Favre-Bulle deliberately stripped the format back — no tachymeter, no crowded scales, just a coloured dial, three steel-ringed subdials, and a round steel case. 'Unlike most chronographs that crowd the dial with numerous graduations and markings, our watch embraces a minimalist aesthetic, resulting in a cleaner, more refined look,' he has said, tying the design directly to time spent in the Swiss mountains and the value of slowing down.
Each Three Peaks watch is cased in 316L steel at 41mm across and 13.5mm thick, with a 50mm lug-to-lug and finishes that mix perlage, mirror polish, satin brushing, and engraving beneath a scratch-resistant, anti-reflective sapphire crystal, water-resistant to 5 ATM. Rather than a Seiko Mecaquartz or generic base calibre, Favre-Bulle chose a genuine column-wheel chronograph, the automatic La Joux-Perret L112, with a 60-hour reserve, 26 jewels, and finishing that includes Côtes de Genève, perlage, blued-steel screws, a palladium treatment, and gold engraving on the rotor. The grained dial's sub-dial hands are shaped to echo mountain peaks, with hour and minute hands bevelled and, on two of the three colourways, polished.
The launch range comes in three colourways, each limited to 50 individually numbered pieces at 2,200 Swiss francs: Ice Blue, inspired by glacial light on ice and water, on a nubuck strap handcrafted by a Belgian family business; White Peaks, evoking snow-covered summits, with heat-blued hands and an alligator strap requiring a CITES certificate; and Sunset, a warmer tribute to mountain light and vineyard gold. An earlier Fir Tree edition, offered as a Kickstarter exclusive at the brand's June 2025 launch, has since sold out and moved to the brand's archive. The debut collection drew early trade press attention, with Oracle Time calling Favre-Bulle's approach 'more elevated than most' chronographs for not needing 'to shout about its horsepower,' and Horologius writing that the range 'feels like it came out of a brand five years older than Favre-Bulle actually is.' Every watch ships in the brand's own packaging with a travel box, a certificate of authenticity, and a handwritten note welcoming the owner into what Favre-Bulle calls its close circle of collectors.