Favre-Leuba Watches at Auction

Favre-Leuba is a Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, and formerly a pioneer in watch design, manufacturing and distribution. The foundation of the brand was laid in 1737 when Abraham Favre was registered as a watchmaker, so it has been reported as the second-oldest watch brand in Switzerland, after Blancpain (1735). In the coming decades, his son and grandsons continued to run the business on their own, until Auguste Leuba, who hailed from a family of merchants and watchmakers, joined the company in 1815. From then on, the company came to be known as Favre-Leuba. The brand’s motto was to create timepieces “for those who conquer frontiers“, and create they did. Their classic Bivouac watch first launched in 1962 and was the first wristwatch to measure altitude and air pressure, making it especially popular among mountaineers and pilots. While the crisis in the Swiss watch industry back in the 1980s meant the owners had to sell the brand, Favre-Leuba has been making a comeback since 2011 and is still well regarded in the field.