Favre-Leuba has announced its new product, the Raider Harpoon 42.
Favre-Leuba is known as the "second oldest watch brand in the world." There are various theories about this "debate about how old it is in the world," but it is said to be the second "still existing" watch brand.
Favre-Leuba was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland in 1737, and its founder, Abraham Favre, together with his sons, expanded the watch business worldwide.
In its long history, Favre-Leuba has surprised the world in recent years with the release of the ultimate diver's watch, the Raider Harpoon, in 2016. While inheriting the lineage of the legendary watches it has created up until now, it has succeeded in incorporating innovative functions and simplifying complex technology to arrive at a unique time display.
The impact of a single minute hand named after "harpoon"
The new Raider Harpoon 42 has a case diameter of 42mm, which gives the impression of being significantly more compact than the previous model's 46mm case. The water resistance has also increased from 500m to 300m, with specifications geared towards everyday use. What remains unchanged from the previous model is the unique time display. A single minute hand dominates the dial. Instead of an hour hand, there is an hour ring, and a seconds disc rotates in the center. The sturdy case inherited from the past and the successfully miniaturized module have made this a further evolution.
The innovative watch display, featuring a single minute hand and hour ring, is supported by Favre-Leuba's traditional retro-future design. The design reflects the vision of the future that many people had in the 1970s, when space exploration was at its peak. Its symbols include a sturdy cushion case, a 14-sided crystal ring, and highly legible minute hand and indexes. These elements form the Raider Harpoon's distinctive design.
Of course, it meets the ISO standards for a diver's watch, and features a unidirectional rotating bezel for measuring dive time (minutes) and a rotating second disc in the center of the dial instead of a second hand to check the movement. There's also a helium valve at the 2 o'clock position for saturation diving. This model allows you to experience the practical strength of many Favre-Leuba watches.
Favre-Leuba, which produces a series of practical mechanical watches that cover everything from the depths of the sea to the highest peaks on land, has this to say:
"We eliminated everything we didn't need, reexamined what remained, and redesigned it. This resulted in the ultimate dive watch. It has just one hand. And that hand gives you everything you need to explore the underwater world, and on land, too."
