Deep under water every minute makes a difference. That’s why two years ago Favre-Leuba, the second oldest Swiss watch brand, introduced the Raider Harpoon with its unique hour indication system.
This year the company is launching the watch in the stunning 42mm size, a very special timepiece fitting to every wrist. Through its history, Favre-Leuba has always set incredibly high standards for dive watches. As early as in 1968, Bathy was the first watch to display not only dive time, but also the dive depth. Equally fascinating engineering genius was behind the creation of the Raider Harpoon watch with the diver’s safety as the central design objective.
The Unique Time Reading Mechanism
The minute hand corresponds the most important information to the athlete deep down under the water. Knowing how many minutes the diver is under water is more important than knowing the hour. Hence, the Favre-Leuba engineers kept only the minute hand for the incredibly easy readability. The hour hand has been substituted with the unique time indication through the co-rotating hour ring. Unusual at the start, when understood, the interplay of hand and ring is very easy to read. For example, if it is 14:15, the hand will point towards 3 o'clock on the bezel for the minute indication and will lie between 2 and the on the hour ring.
How to read the time
With a reduction of the unnecessary, the diver’s attention will be focused on what’s most important in the extreme conditions. The unidirectional bezel with the 20-minute scale serves as another assistant to a successful and safe dive, it’s a good reminder of the remaining time before the decompression is needed.
Helium valve
The functionality of the timepiece meets the demands of the most advanced divers. The helium valve provides the necessary pressure balance inside the watch essential for a professional diver after spending substantial time under water. Upon resurfacing, releasing the helium by unscrewing the valve is needed to protect the watch glass from popping out.
Favre-Leuba Harpoon 42mm 00.10101.08.52.20 - Image Favre-Leuba [product ids="6381, 6383, 6532"]
The challenge of this year was to put the complicated function into a much smaller case. Favre-Leuba’s technology engineer Urs Gottscheu explains how it was possible:
“When we decided to launch the Raider Harpoon in a smaller 42mm size, we had to think how to create the new timepiece without changing the design and the proportions of the original. Most importantly, we didn’t want to compromise on the readability. To avoid having a much thicker watch, we reduced the water—resistance parameter from 500m to 300m. The proportions stayed the same and we still have a very impressive diving functionality.”
The bold design of the Harpoon model belongs to the legendary history of the brand yet has been skillfully translated into the design of today. The masterly detailed watch immediately catches the eye. The anti-reflective coating on the sapphire crystal improves visibility. The bezel is a finely wrought distinctive tetradecagon — a signature element in Favre—Leuba design DNA.
The new timepiece is available at the price of £3,250.
Technical details
MOVEMENT Automatic, patented* mechanism for hour display
FUNCTIONS Time display by minute hand and hour indicator, running seconds disk at the center for function control, helium valve
CASE Stainless steel or stainless steel with gunmetal PVD coating; unidirectional rotating bezel made of anodized aluminum; screw—in crown; sapphire crystal with antireflection coating on both sides; screwed and aligned case back; diameter 42 mm, height 14.6, water resistant up to 80 bar/300m
DIAL Blue or black; appliqued and luminous (blue emission) index marks;
luminous hour indicator, minute and second hands, marking under
seconds disk
WRISTBAND Stainless steel, folding clasp with safety bracket and diving extension system, or rubber with pin buckle
