Favre-Leuba: Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth

In 1968, the vision of the perfect dive watch became reality. Divers around the world sat up and took notice. Favre-Leuba’s Bathy was the first wristwatch with a membrane and a central hand that made it possible to measure depth more accurately. The original Bathy was a milestone in mechanical instrument watches and is a much sought-after collector’s piece today.

The year 2018 marks the 50^thanniversary of the Bathy – the perfect time to pave the way for what could be a new legend, the new Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth. The retrofuturistic design is a deliberate nod to the original 1968 Bathy. From a technical standpoint, however, the Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth is an entirely new creation. The case design is a homage to its popular predecessor and is complemented by bold, functional colors and striking, easy-to-read hands.

The Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth is inspired by the principle of form following function, with a clear and timeless design. The case is crafted from titanium and, with its 48 mm diameter, guarantees perfect readability.

The depth gauge combines ideas taken from the 1968 Bathy with the results of constant modernization and technical development, turning one of the established rules of watchmaking completely on its head. Never let water get inside of a watch? Quite the opposite.The new Bathy features apertures in the case back that actually invite water inside. These openings are part of the depth gauge, which is hermetically separated from the movement.The concept is based on the compression of a specially designed membrane that is integrated into the case back.Water enters a separate chamber in the case back through the apertures, causing the membrane to compress as the pressure increases.A mechanical contact sensor inside the watch reacts to this compression and conveys the information via the hand of the depth gauge, which shows the dive depth on a nonlinear display via a central hand on the dial. Dive depths up to 120 m can be measured extremely precisely. The scale for the first 30 m is finer, with two red marks at 5 and 10, where decompression stops may be necessary. The Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth also features a mechanical depth memory (MemoDepth), which stores the maximum depth reached during a dive.The depth gauge at 3 o’clock reliably displays the value until it is reset via the screw-in pusher at 4 o’clock.

The Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth is water-resistant up to 200 m, as is the norm for a dive watch of this type. Its optimal range of measurement is 120 m, more than double that of the original Bathy from 1968 (50 m). A built-in mechanical limiter ensures that neither the pressure membrane nor the depth gauge are damaged if the wearer dives deeper than the optimal range.

One extremely important safety aspect comes into play on every dive: Every professional dive watch is fitted with either an internal ring or external unidirectional bezel.The diver aligns the triangular marker at 60 with the minute hand right before beginning the dive. The time that has elapsed since the beginning of the dive is then shown on the bezel in minutes.The external dive bezel of the Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth operates in the same way, turning only counterclockwise and allowing the wearer to track their remaining dive time. Accidentally moving the bezel clockwise could cause the diver to make a perilous miscalculation of the dive time. With the Bathy, it is only possible to accidentally move the bezel counterclockwise, which would only subtract from the planned dive time.

The Favre-Leuba Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth is powered by the FL321 hand-wound movement. It is based on the EMC 3903M caliber, which has been completely reengineered by Favre-Leuba. It features a 65-hour power reserve and a power-reserve indicator displayed at 12 o’clock.

Favre-Leuba is the second-oldest active Swiss watch brand, with a rich heritage in watch engineering and design spanning over 281 years. It was led by eight generations of the Favre family until the 1980s, and acquired by the Tata Group on November 16, 2011. Today, its engineering office located in Solothurn, Switzerland, is like a think tank – a place where traditional watchmaking is influenced by the dynamic engineering spirit of today. (Price CHF.8500)

By Valeria Garavaglia