Seiko Champion

I’ve been saving up various tidbits of information on this brand ever since I saw one of their vintage Bathy divers, and then later purchased a friend a vintage Favre-Leuba dress watch. But with the recent release of their new “Bathy v2″, too many other people have written about this brand, so there’s a lot more information that’s easy to find now, than there was a year ago, so I think it’s probably better I just summarize some of the best posts.



This is another “reborn” brand, one that died during the Quartz Revolution, only to be picked up later by financial concerns who saw the value of reviving an older known brand now that mechanical watches are “hot” again. From what I’ve seen, they’ve done a half-decent job to date of not embarrassing the old brand, which is always my concern in these situations.

It was the depth gauge that this brand first captured me with, here’s an example of a 1966 Bathy:



From a post on The Hour hand…

… Its depth gauge works on a beryllium copper membrane. The water enters the double back through four large visible openings on the side. The resulting pressure causes the membrane to contract. By means of a complex mechanism, this contraction, no more than a few tenths of a millimetre, moves the hand on the dial, and does so with unparalleled precision: less than 0.18% deviation for the depth gauge at 45 metres! This precision – extended to its limits in the most extreme conditions s – is one of Favre-Leuba’s trademarks ..

That point of interest was quickly followed by similar consideration for their other technical achievements. From a history of the brand that I cannot find the original author to, but which is quoted numerous places on the web…

… the factory distinguished itself with a number of innovations launched from around 1950, including, for example, their own automatic caliber in 1956, the “Bivouac”, a manually-wound wristwatch with mechanical altimeter in 1963, and the 1966 “Bathy 50″ with a mechanical depth gauge. Similarly in the sixties, Favre-Leuba made itself known for its extraordinary twin-barreled movements, initially with manual winding and later with automatic winding. <and> with a balance frequency of 36,000v/h …

Here’s a 1965 example of an altimeter/barometer Bivouac:



And a 1966 twin-barrel duomatic Deep Blue with the 36000 bph automatic movement:



Are you noticing something else that makes these appeal to me? …

LOOK. AT. THE. COLOR. !!!

Wow, is this the cool part of 1960s and 1970s watches, or what. These are just great! Here’s a few other example, men’s and lady’s 1970s Deep Blue divers.





For more information on this interesting brand, I can also refer you to this post by Sphere By Milan, this recent one at Professional Watches, another on the Amateur Economist, and of course the Favre-Leuba site’s timeline.