To The Alps With Vintage And Modern Favre-Leuba Bivouacs

This year, Favre-Leuba is celebrating 283 years of watchmaking history by looking back at the brand’s connection to Swiss engineering and Swiss mountaineering. These two very distinct disciplines were brought together by one thing: The Favre-Leuba Bivouac.

In 1962, the Favre-Leuba Bivouac became the first mechanical wristwatch to include a barometer and a built-in altimeter that could measure altitude up to 3,000 meters. The watch became a true companion for the world’s most adventurous mountaineers who could track their progress and the weather in the most hostile of environments.
 

In 2017, over half a century later, Favre-Leuba unveiled the Raider Bivouac 9,000, a mechanical wristwatch that could mechanically measure altitude up to 9,000 meters. Why 9,000 meters? Well, this is the maximum altitude needed to measure the 8,848 meters of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain above sea level. Like its predecessor, the Raider Bivouac 9000 also features a barometer, but unlike the 1962 version, it is now water-resistant to 30 meters.
 

The mission was to ascend to the summit of the Jungfrau mountain. At 4,158 meters, it is one of Switzerland’s highest peaks. The duo took the Jungfraujoch railway up to the Jungfrau mountain range, and from there crossed the Aletsch Glacier, the largest glacier in the Alps. They spent the night in the Mönchsjoch hut but were forced to turn back the following day due to severe avalanche risks caused by high winds and heavy shifts of snow on the upper slopes.
 

“When we were out, we knew that the weather would be unstable. The watch's barometer confirmed this and showed that it was likely to be worse than expected. A violent storm caught us, and we barely made it to the safe hut. So, the information we got from the Bivouac was vital,” noted Hojac.
 

Agreeing, Bühler said, “Both watches are very precise in all their functions and are battery independent. In bad weather conditions, a reliable time and altitude indication are crucial, informing you whether you should or should not start a difficult trip. Besides a good weather forecast, high air pressure of at least 1020 mbar is an important condition. If no weather forecast is available in remote areas, air pressure is the only measurable variable for understanding weather changes. Therefore, a watch with the barometer function, like the Raider Bivouac 9000, is an indispensable instrument on expeditions.”

The Raider Bivouac 9000 measures altitude thanks to an innovative aneroid capsule, which acts like a mini metal accordion that expands and contracts based on air pressure. This capsule also allows the timepiece to measure minor changes in the surrounding atmospheric pressure, indicating changes in the weather.
 

The timepiece is powered by the hand-wound FL311 movement that is based on the Eterna Caliber 3903M. It includes a specially designed in-house altimeter module. The timepiece is housed in a 48mm titanium case and comes with a black dial and an antelope leather strap.