A Closer Look at the Favre-Leuba Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth
Favre-Leuba has had a long history in the Swiss watchmaking industry that dates back to founder Abraham Favre’s apprenticeship in 1718. Jump forward to 300 years later, the company has passed on its philosophies and skills in watchmaking from generation to generation. From the 18th to the 21st century, the company revolutionized the industry by many of its products, various enhancements, and advancement, including the introduction of the world’s first mechanical wristwatch. This watch was revolutionary during that time because it not only displayed dive time; it also showed divers their current diving depths. This watch was the original Bathy.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the innovative Bathy, Favre-Leuba releases the Raider Bathy 120 MemoDepth. The Raider Bathy can measure and record up to 120m in depth. It’s the ultimate deep-sea diving companion; you’ll know exactly when you’ve hit the 120m mark because the Raider Bathy will be there to let you know. The depth gauge subdial is designed to display your maximum depth recorded. The subdial will also indicate the date display and reserve indicator at the 12 o’clock mark—the watch has power reserves of 65 hours.
The 2018 Raider Bathy is water resistant up to 200 meters. Here is what’s most interesting about this watch. While all the dive watch technology over the last several decades have worked towards keeping water out of watches, Raider Bathy does the exact opposite. The depth gauge actually allows water in, specifically in the caseback and into a chamber. When water gets into this chamber as the diver gets deeper and the pressure increases, it causes a membrane to compress. This compression is then read by a mechanical contact sensor in the watch. This is how the depth gauge reads the diving depth and also how the depth gauge hand displays the reading. As mentioned previously, the watch will read up to 120m, which is way beyond leisure diving depths for most. Any diving beyond 36m realistically will require some training beforehand; that’s why this watch is perfect for the deep-sea diver. As an interesting add-on, the ability for the Raider Bathy to go to depths of 120m is more than double what the original 1968 Bathy could even get close to.
Unless you’re a professional, it’ll probably take you more than a few tries to get to 120m. The Raider Bathy has a mechanical depth memory feature that will let you record and store your maximum depths each time you dive. This way, you can set your own diving records and beat your own records as well. This memory feature can be cleared with a simple screw-in pusher.
There’s also more to the Raider Bathy than these functions. This Favre-Leuba watch exceeds the brand’s philosophy of excellence in design. The titanium case contains a unidirectional rotating bezel. It has a screw in crown and sapphire crystal that has antireflection coating on both sides. At 48mm in diameter, the Raider Bathy is a statement on your wrist. The black dial is reminiscent of the deep diving waters, the perfect backdrop for the blue dive sector marking that will just illuminate in the deep. The watch also features a red indication for decompression stops, a blue hand for indicating depth, and luminous indexes among many others. The strap is made of the highest quality rubber with a pin buckle.
Favre-Leube held true to their promise of taking the art of watchmaking to the future. Not too long before the release of the Raider Bathy, the watch company won the 2018 WatchStar New Star award with their 2018 Raider Bivouac 9000. With the Raider Bathy’s designs, specifications, and capabilities, Favre-Leube is once again ahead of the curve. There’s no other diving watch out there that can match the Raider Bathy 120 Memodepth when it comes to class and functionality. It also doesn’t hurt that the watch just looks so good. Currently, the watch is sold at around CHF 8,500 or roughly USD$ 8,800. The impressive and almost nostalgic timepiece is certainly worth every penny of that price. When you buy a Raider Bathy, just know that you’re also buying a small piece of history—history as it is in the past and history in the making.
