Favre-Leuba’s strong comeback

After being sold in 2003 and re-launched as of 2006, Favre-Leuba‘s new directors have uncovered a manuscript, dated 1718, which relates how Abraham Favre, a former church elder, began to learn the intricacies of watchmaking that very year. The company itself was established in 1737.

All along its history, Favre-Leuba has continued developing the performance and innovation of its timepieces. The legendary twin-power, featuring the first ever double barrel (1950), the Bivouac encapsulating a mechanical altimeter (1962), the Bathy, with its mechanical depth gauge (1966), and the Sea Raider with its high-frequency movement (1967), perfectly illustrate the brand’s continuous willingness to reinvent its future.
Favre-Leuba is unveiling its new manufactured movement, the caliber FL 401. The new hand wound movement beats with a high-frequency of 5 Hertz (36’000 bph) and has a double springbarrel providing 8 days of power reserve! I’m not sure if i’ve seen other 36,000 bph manual wind with as much as 192 hours power reserve…

Last year’s press releases still mentions 2011 as target year for the new Favre-Leuba manufacture caliber. It looks like the development went smooth because it’s already here, 2 years ahead of schedule. And with these specifications i’m looking forward to more information about the caliber FL 401.

Next is an absolute beauty, also featuring a high beat movement. The Favre-Leuba A.Schild Limited Edition features an original automatic (?) vintage movement from 1967. The model name doesn’t leave much questioning about the brand of the used caliber, which has 21 jewels, beats at 36,000 bph with a power reserve of 42 hours. The stainless steel case measures 41mm and has an sapphire crystal with anti reflection coating. It is water resistant to 100 meters.

The dial features multilayer construction, semi-transparent with metal finishing for UV protection. The hands and indices are applied in 18kt gold with Superluminova coating. Personally i love the design with the beefy lugs, the transparent dial and let’s be honest… a high beat A.Schild movement is also no punishment 😉

Be fast as these beauties are limited to only 101 pieces….

The last new release of Favre-Leuba i’ll share with you is the Angelus Chrono DatoLuxe. Not only the name reminds of long gone years, the caliber used and even the design look ‘vintage’… and absolutely stunning!

The case is made of 18kt white gold and measures 41mm in diameter. It has been fitted with a sapphire crystal and display back and is water resistant to 30 meters. Now the thing that makes this watch even more desirable is the vintage movement Favre-Leuba used. It’s a new old stock hand-wound caliber 252, based on an Angelus ebauche manufactured in 1948. It beats at 18,000 bph and has a power reserve of 48 hours. The column-wheel chronograph features a moonphase complication.

For more news about Favre-Leuba and other pre Basel releases, check Perpetuelle.com