Favre Leuba - Bivouac calibrating the barometer

aeroengineer · Nov 3, 2016

Dear friends, I kindly ask you for any advise. This FL Bivouac has some issue: the bezel is loose and sometimes can pop off. As soon as I do not know a lot about this watch I cannot say anything yet. There is a pic with the bezel removed.

Is it possible to fix or I need to forget about it?

bd-chrono · Nov 6, 2016

aeroengineer
Dear friends, I kindly ask you for any advise. This FL Bivouac has some issue: the bezel is loose and sometimes can pop off. As soon as I do not know a lot about this watch I cannot say anything yet. There is a pic with the bezel removed.

Is it possible to fix or I need to forget about it?

The problem is not with your bezel as you have all the components. The problem is your crystal. The correct crystal, which it appears you do not have, has a lip on it which holds the bezel in place. I have several of these watches and have learned the hard way that the correct crystal is not easy to find.

aeroengineer · Nov 7, 2016

bd-chrono
The problem is your crystal.

Thank you for your explanation. And very sad to hear it.

Do you have or anyone has any idea where to get such crystal?

The watch is beautiful but without the crystal there is no sense to wear it.

ncstate1201 · Nov 20, 2016

Wow great watch, bummer on the crystal one more thing to try to remember to look from if I come across one

cjoedaniel · May 28, 2019

Does anyone know if these watches are still serviceable? I may be getting my hands on one and from the picture I received, it seems to be missing the red barometric hand...

Mark020 · May 29, 2019

Good luck.... Don't think that will be an easy part to find

Adri · May 29, 2019

cjoedaniel
Does anyone know if these watches are still serviceable? I may be getting my hands on one and from the picture I received, it seems to be missing the red barometric hand...

Without the altimeter hand is it very hard to check if the altimeter works.

I would only buy a Bivouac if i can test with a zip bag that the atimeter is working.

The problem with these watches is if the barometer dose is broken or have holes, the altimeter will never work.

Unfortunately at the moment there is nobody who can supply such barometer doses.

Do you know the ref of the watch or can you send me a pic?
It could be that i have an altimeter hand if the ref is correct.

Tony C. · May 29, 2019

Mlafra
my understanding is that the reference 53203 (the first one of the Bivouac, preceding the later 53213 with running second, which precedes the one with the blue dial) had a brass bezel in all cases covered by black lacquer with white and yellow numbers. The few examples where the bezel is completely brass I think are just "normal" 1st generation bezel where the lacquer has completely disappeared and/or has been completely removed. I own a Ref 53203 pretty much identitcal to the one of MMMD, and also in mine in the 2 or 3 places where the lacquer has chipped a little bit you can see the brass peeping out.

This is a belated response to @Mlafra and his interesting claim. I am skeptical of it for two reasons. The first is that I cannot imagine why FL would have placed a bezel insert over a base that had the indexes both etched and colored. I would, instead, have expected the same type of smooth base that one presumably finds under all dive/tool watch bezel inserts.

Secondly, there should be a vertical space where the missing bezel once sat, and I do not remember such a space - which would have been a clear sign of a missing part - when I owned the watch pictured in my original post.

So, I believe that the claim that there was a short, initial production run of etched brass bezels remains quite plausible.

cjoedaniel · May 29, 2019

Adri
Without the altimeter hand is it very hard to check if the altimeter works.

I would only buy a Bivouac if i can test with a zip bag that the atimeter is working.

The problem with these watches is if the barometer dose is broken or have holes, the altimeter will never work.

Unfortunately at the moment there is nobody who can supply such barometer doses.

Do you know the ref of the watch or can you send me a pic?
It could be that i have an altimeter hand if the ref is correct.

This is the pic that was sent to me. I will try and get a pic of the case back but might be difficult as the person is out of town for the next few weeks.

Adri · May 30, 2019

cjoedaniel
This is the pic that was sent to me. I will try and get a pic of the case back but might be difficult as the person is out of town for the next few weeks.

Case is from ref 53203 and this ref never had a running second at 6 (except blue dial version)
So the conclusion must be that the dial came from a ref 53213.

I think you need here more than only an altimeter hand😗.

Tony C.
This is a belated response to @Mlafra and his interesting claim. I am skeptical of it for two reasons. The first is that I cannot imagine why FL would have placed a bezel insert over a base that had the indexes both etched and colored. I would, instead, have expected the same type of smooth base that one presumably finds under all dive/tool watch bezel inserts.

Secondly, there should be a vertical space where the missing bezel once sat, and I do not remember such a space - which would have been a clear sign of a missing part - when I owned the watch pictured in my original post.

So, I believe that the claim that there was a short, initial production run of etched brass bezels remains quite plausible.

For ref 53203 is it true that it only came with brass bezels and it could be that Tony is right.

Here a pic stolen form the net with first meter bezel and this is also coloured and not etched (btw it's number 38)

Here also a stolen pic from the net with a Bivouac 53203 with the same bezel but etched

The colors of the etched bezels Tony's and this above are also the same so it could be true (black and red).

X5Mita · Jun 4, 2019

Great watch!

cjoedaniel · Jun 14, 2019

Here is the watch I received. Seconds is running but I cannot seem to set the time. Crown doesn't really pull out. I wonder if I can get it serviced by a competent watchmaker?

cjoedaniel · Jun 14, 2019

And here's the caseback.

Muddlerminnow · Dec 1, 2020

Darlinboy
Cool watch.👍

One I'll never buy - an esoteric collector reference & drfinitely not for a faint of heart enthusiast like me.

LOL--decidedly definitely not for the faint of heart. I've been trying to buy one for a while now, and in each case the barometer, though it appeared working (based on a simple plastic bag pressure test) was, as far as calibration was concerned, far off--30mm HG or more.

So here's a question that perhaps someone with more scientific acumen than me might be able to answer: would shipping the watch in an unpressurized freight hold affect the calibration? I'm puzzled about this--. Also, does anyone have the original documents and instructions for the Bivouac?--. A couple of documents have been posted in this thread, but there's another one I have partly seen in the video here (near the end starting around 2:45):