Independents

A chance encounter yesterday gave me a chance to get to know a new independent brand: A. Favre et Fils

The Favre family from La Locle has a long tradition of watchmaking.  The first mention of watchmaking in the family being the apprenticeship papers of Abraham Favre in 1718.  In 1792 another Abraham Favre (the third generation) associated with his 2 sons Frédéric et Henry-Louis to form the company Abraham Favre et Fils (A. Favre and Sons).

The company was active in markets around the world and in the 20th century gave particular attention to India.  In it's best years Favre sold around 400'000 watches a year. Members of the family remained at the head of the company through 6 further generations until it was sold to the German group VDO in 1976.  Recently we have seen some interesting offerings from Favre-Leuba a company which, unfortunately, has become one of the victims of the present financial crisis.

It is now Laurent Favre, from the 10th generation of watchmakers in the Favre family, who has formed a company again under the old family name A. Favre & Fils and is presenting his first new watch model.  His goal is to continue the family tradition that he has inherited and to uphold the spirit of innovation, quality and excellence.

A chance meeting in the village of Le Lieu in the Vallée de Joux gave me the unexpected opportunity to meet Mr. Favre and see two of his watches "in the metal".

The Watches

The Phoenix 10.1 is the first watch of the new A. Favre & Fils company.  This watch has a unique big date function.  The numbers 0...9 are arranged in an arc on the right side of the dial.  A second concentric arc indicates the date with an arrow for 1...9, a 1 in the proper position for days 10...19, a 2 in the propoer position for days 20...29 and (who would have quessed it?) a 3 for the days 30 and 31.  This neat date indication requires only 2 moving parts.

The minute and hour hands are slit in the middle, the hand not covering the current time, but letting it appear in the open middle portion.

The gold case is very elegant with the sharp junctions made possible by todays precision machining. The case is actually made of 9 pieces fitted tightly together.

The Movement

The movement, the DB1334 Henry (named after Henry A. Favre, Laurent's grandfather and 8th generation Favre watchmaker), is a special development for AF&F with two barrels giving 84 hours of autonomy.  The double ratchets remind of high-end pocket watch movements of the good old days, the regulator has a swans-neck and the jewel settings with capstones are screwed in.  The decoration is top-notch with polished beveling and very flamboyant radial côtes de Gèneve.

Note the two color decoration of the movement on the right.  The top surface is plated in black rhodium, the angles and flanks in white rhodium.  This is a very special and complicated decoration technique that has seldom been done before.  This involves doing the surface decoration and plating, masking that surface and continuing the beveling and flank decoration and plating.  When the surface masking is then removed a perfect line can be seen between the top surface finishing in black rhodium and the bevel and flank finishing in white rhodium.  It doesn't really jump out at you, but it does heighten the contrast between the côtes and the polished beveling.

Below, one color

Below, two color

I think this is a very successful new watch design.
I wish Laurent the best of luck with his new endever and hope these are just the first of many new and interesting designs from A. Favre & Fils in the future.
Don

Thanks for the report Don.  That's a remarkable looking movement.

Separately, do you happen to know if the movement firm Marc Favre & Co, which was acquired by Omega in 1955, was related to the Favre family you describe here?

Tom

 

but would claim that the chances are good.
Maybe Laurent can give us some info.
Don

 

 you always open my eyes on attractive independents work , it is interesting to know that the brand is back within the family , an interesting dial , and even a more interesting movement, which tells me to stay tuned for what's next , honestly, the movement is such a beauty that i would wear the watch with the movement side facing upwards .

 

 Faisal

 

 

Hi there, we are not related to the firm that you mentioned.  I am the descendant of the family that founded Favre-Leuba.

Regarding your question about the double-click on the barrels, it allows to wind the barrels to their maximum, better than with a single-click mechanism, as one click is halfway of the other.

This message has been edited by AF&F on 2010-06-19 12:35:11

Dear M. Favre,

Many thanks for taking the time to provide some insight.  Your movement design and finishing is inspiring.

Tom

Thanks for the great report, I was unaware of their existence. Amazing watches!

What is the diameter? It looks to be perhaps 42mm, but it's sometimes hard to tell.

I wonder if the movement is fabricated by R&P? It doesn't look like the work of BNB or Claret or FMN....

any

Hello, the diameter of the case is 41mm. The movement is an in-house development. The design is my own and I collaborate with an independent CAD designer.

Always good to hear from the boss himself! One other question, in the other watches I've seen with a similar double-barrel movement, the barrels drove different features, and were wound in opposite directions. Since these 2 drive the same train, do they also wind in opposite directions or in parallel?
a

My pleasure. In this case, the barrels are parallel and turn in the same direction. Best, LF

Looks like an interesting timepiece, but that dial, hmm mm, not for me. Beautiful movement, love those plates.

Best wishes fot them.

Thanks for sharing.

Vte

i like the Movement very much  but not so crazy about the Dial.

 after all?  "  to each his own "

 thanks for showing these nice Photos.

Tony

Don,

I like it!

 

Don,

Looking at the movement again, each barrel's ratchet wheel seems to carry a unique-looking, symmetrical double click, each with a single beak and a long curved click spring that looks to hearken to German traditional designs.  If this is what it is, do you know the purpose of having two clicks for each barrel, other than the attractive design?

thanks,
Tom

i think the movement looks absolutely superb whilst i find the dial clean and simple. the date mechanism is an interesting complication and the case is a looker which tops it all off nicely.

i can see that Big Daddy may have another independent on his list    and who can blame him. my list of beautiful watches i could never afford grows daily. i would perhaps like to see a different dial, but there is plenty of time for that if the future follows history.

best

Graham

Looks like there's a neat little power reserve indicator on the movement side near the crown - this will be useful too.

I very much like the watches design and the movement and finishing but am less convinced by the date mechanism.

I do really wish them every success with this watch though - it has a lot going for it and deserves to flourish.

Vernon

and something I'd like to see in the metal.

- SJX