Favre Leuba Expands the Deep Raider Renaissance Line with Meteorite and Malachite Dials
Marking the first time in Favre Leuba’s 288-year history that the brand has introduced dials crafted from semi-precious stone
Favre Leuba introduces two new interpretations of the Deep Raider Renaissance series, spotlighting distinctive natural materials: the Deep Raider Renaissance Meteorite and the Deep Raider Renaissance Malachite.
These editions mark the first time in the brand’s 288-year history that stone dials have been used, bringing meteorite and malachite into the collection as expressive and technically demanding elements. While both models draw aesthetic inspiration from the 1964 Deep Blue, the Renaissance collection embraces the modern design language established in 2024. Together, these uncommon materials bring visual complexity and material storytelling into one of the maison’s hallmark collections.
Deep Raider Renaissance Meteorite: A Dial Formed Beyond Earth
The meteorite version brings a new material into Favre Leuba’s history: Muonionalusta iron meteorite from northern Sweden. Composed of iron and nickel, with kamacite and taenite, it displays the distinctive Widmanstätten pattern formed over millions of years and revealed through precise slicing and acid treatment.
Preparing a meteorite for watchmaking is delicate work. Each sample is assessed for stability before being cut into thin sections, as its high iron content can make it brittle. Craftsmen carefully finish each plate to preserve its extraterrestrial texture while ensuring durability. Adding to its complexity, the watch features a two-part sandwich dial. A perforated top layer sits above a base plate coated in Super-Luminova, allowing light to pour through the cut-out indexes and creating bright, highly legible hour markers.
Each Deep Raider Renaissance Meteorite timepiece comes with a certificate of authenticity to ensure that the meteorite used in the timepiece is ethically sourced. No two dials look alike.
Deep Raider Renaissance Malachite: Natural Patterns With Technical Discipline
The malachite edition highlights the brand’s focus on specialty materials and careful finishing. The dial is crafted from genuine malachite, a semi-precious mineral known for its vivid green tones and flowing, concentric patterns. Because every slice of this mineral forms in irregular layers, each dial carries a one-of-a-kind visual identity. Working with malachite requires careful handling due to its softness and natural veins.
Favre Leuba selects only stable, visually appealing sections of stone before passing them to artisans who cut the material into thin plates, reinforce it where necessary, and polish it at low temperatures to maintain its structural integrity. No two dials look alike.
Engineering The Icon: Craft, Performance & Precision
Both editions share the technical framework of the Deep Raider Renaissance. They adopt a 40 mm stainless-steel case with 300-meter water resistance, a ceramic unidirectional-rotating bezel, and a sapphire crystal. Inside, the automatic FLD02 movement delivers a 68-hour power reserve and can be viewed through a transparent caseback. Decorative elements such as Côtes de Genève finishing, blued screws, and a skeletonized 4N-toned rotor engraved with the Favre Leuba emblem underscore the attention given to mechanical design.
With the Malachite and Meteorite models, Favre Leuba continues developing a longstanding design lineage while exploring dial materials that connect terrestrial geological formations and cosmic origins.
Technical information
Case
- Case: Size 40 mm
- Material: Steel
- Case shape: Round
- Case Thickness: 12.69 mm
- Lug Width: 20 mm
- Glass Material: Sapphire Crystal
- Bezel: Unidirectional Rotating Bezel
- Case Back: See-through Case Back
- Water Resistance: 300M
Dial
- Dial Colour: Malachite
- Luminosité: On Hands, Hour Markers & Bezel
Movement
- Caliber: FLD02
- Movement: Automatic
- Features: Date
- Jewels: 24
- Power reserve: Approx. 68 hours
- Frequency: 28800 vph
Bracelet and straps
- Material: Steel
- Clasp Type: Folding clasp
- Strap: Green rubber
Reference
- 00.20308.101.51.200 Bracelet
- 00.20308.101.51.303 Rubber
FAVRE LEUBA HISTORY
A JOURNEY OF 287 YEARS SINCE 1737
Favre Leuba developed the legendary Bivouac, the world’s first mechanical wristwatch with an aneroid barometer for altimetry and air pressure measurement. It soon ranked among the indispensable equipment of those who overcame seemingly defined limits. The Bivouac completed one of its first missions on the wrists of the Swiss national parachuting team during the 1962 World Cup in the United States. The Italian mountaineer Walter Bonatti wore a Bivouac in 1964 when he and the Genevan Michel Vaucher successfully ascended the north face of Pointe Whymper (4,196 m) in the Grandes Jorasses for the first time and when he conquered the north face of the Matterhorn on the most direct route. The young Valais native Michel Darbelley undertook his first solo ascent of the Eiger in 1963 with his watch from the workshops of Favre Leuba, which reliably showed him what altitude he had already scaled and whether a change in weather was imminent. The famous French polar explorer Paul-Emile Victor relied on his Bivouac on numerous expeditions to the endless ice.
FL251 CALIBREThe patented FL251 calibre of 1962, with 11.5‴ and a height of only 2.95 mm, revolutionised thanks to the use of two barrels, series production of extra flat movements with centered second hand.
Three years after the presentation of the first diver’s watch from the in-house atelier, the brand launched the Deep Blue, waterproof up to 200 metres.
NEW HEADQUARTERS Favre Leuba reincorporated production of their own ébauches in the newly established company, headquartered in Petit-Lancy near Geneva. The company was consequently named at the end of the 19th century as Manufacture d’Horlogerie Favre-Leuba S.A.
280th anniversary of the Maison was celebrated at Baselworld with the launch of the Bivouac 9000, the ultimate instrument for all altitudes.
BRAND AMBASSADORSThe brand supports many athletes and expeditions that express our claim of Conquering Frontiers. Pen Hadow, who led a mission to the Arctic, Satyarup Siddhanta, who embarked on a journey to the Mt. Vinson Massif, and Sayuri Kinoshita, who undertook a world-record dive, are some of the ambassadors representing Favre Leuba and their tool watches.
Within less than a year of its launch, the Raider Bivouac 9000 wins the Watchstars award in the category New Stars for being the best new watch.
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATHY Favre Leuba celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1968 superstar Bathy with the Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth, which measures and records depth to 120 m.
BIVOUAC 9000 SUMMITS EVERESTA great year for Favre Leuba as its pioneering instrument watch, the Raider Bivouac 9000, reaches the summit of Mount Everest. The Bivouac 9000 is the only mechanical altimeter watch in the world to have successfully reached an altitude of 8,848m.
2024
FAVRE LEUBA REVIVAL
Favre Leuba relaunched at Geneva Watch Days 2024 with three cornerstone collections. These collections include the Chief, which features two modern icons: the Date and Chronograph. The brand also introduced the 60th-anniversary Deep Blue Revival and Renaissance models, honoring its diving heritage. In addition, the brand unveiled the Sea Sky, a tribute to their original 70s design.
