Favre-Leuba

The second-oldest watch brand in the world, just two years behind Blancpain. On 13 March 1737, Abraham Favre was first recorded as an independent watchmaker in Le Locle; around 1749 he was appointed Maître horloger du Locle. He collaborated with Jacques-Frédéric Houriet (father of Swiss chronometry) and with Abraham-Louis Breguet on innovative timepieces. His son Henry-Augustus Favre later teamed with Auguste Leuba in 1815, creating the Favre-Leuba name. (The Favre family's original workshop — formally named A. Favre & Fils in 1792 — lives on today as a separate independent haute horlogerie house, revived by the family's 10th generation and listed in this catalogue: the two brands share the same root but are now under different ownership, Favre-Leuba belonging to private investors while A. Favre & Fils remains in Favre family hands.) The company ran through eight generations of the Favre family, winning prizes at World's Fairs from London 1851 to Porto 1865, and becoming the first Swiss watch company to enter India in 1865.

Iconic horological firsts: the Bivouac (1962) — the world's first mechanical wristwatch with aneroid barometer for altimetry and air pressure, worn by Swiss national parachutists at the 1962 World Cup; the Bathy — first mechanical dive watch with depth gauge; first manual-winding in-house calibre FL101 (1955). The family sold the brand in 1985 during the quartz crisis; it changed hands several times before Titan Company (Tata Group) ownership from 2011–2023, then acquisition by Silvercity Brands. Relaunched in 2024 with three cornerstone collections: Chief (date and chronograph), Deep Raider Revival (60th-anniversary dive, 200m), and Sea Sky (tribute to the 1970s design). Based in Grenchen.

Under CEO Patrik Hoffmann, an industry veteran, the relaunch has gathered pace with unusual discipline: 2025 belonged to the expanding Chief collection, while 2026 was declared the year of the Deep Raider, rooted in the 1964 Deep Blue. The diver line now spans the faithful 39 mm Deep Raider Revival (true to the original design), the modernised Renaissance, an orange edition channelling the 1970s Bathy 160, a Day Date rated to 30 ATM, and the Deep Raider Power Reserve — 40 mm, 300 metres, ceramic bezel insert, and a new power-reserve display, offered in five dial variations. Milestones have come quickly: a 25-piece collaboration with the Puerto Rico-based collector community Timepiece 787 introduced semi-precious stone dials for the first time in the brand's 289-year history, the Sea Sky Revival added a green dial after its black, brown, and blue debut editions sold through, and in April 2026 Favre-Leuba made its first-ever appearance at Watches and Wonders Geneva — one of only 65 brands exhibiting, less than two years after relaunch — where it unveiled the Harpoon Revival, reviving a defining 1960s design with a modern self-winding movement, and an entirely new collection named 1737 for the founding year. With India still a dominant market from the 1865 head start and a global retail push underway, the second-oldest name in Swiss watchmaking is executing one of the most credible heritage revivals of the decade: not trading on the archive, but methodically reissuing it, collection by collection, with the specifications the originals deserved.