Favre Leuba And Jean Rousseau Team Up For Three Strap-Led Limited Edition Deep Raiders

There are plenty of watch brands that will point out that their straps are made exclusively for them by a strap maker. But I can't exactly think of a limited edition watch made in collaboration with a strap maker. Which is a shame, because it's a very obvious source of collaboration. It makes sense. Just look at Favre Leuba's Deep Raider Revival made in collaboration with the legendary French strap maker Jean Rousseau. There's three variants and they all have pretty great strap. As you would expect.

Since the collab is based on the new straps, the watches themselves don't change much if at all. The steel cases measure 39mm wide and 12.75mm thick, a sensible size for a diver, especially one with 300 meters of water resistance. On top is a sapphire crystal, surrounded by unidirectional 60-minute bezel.

The dial is grey sunray-brushed with beige indices and hands, which might be just a bit too fauxtina for me. Each variant gets its own color for the seconds hand and for the hourglass logo between 10 and 11 o'clock, matched to its strap. Lume is Super-LumiNova, and there's a round date aperture between 4 and 5 o'clock.

Inside is the FLD01, basically the La Joux-Perret G100, beating at 4Hz, with a 68-hour power reserve. Then, there are the Jean Rousseau straps. The black calf version has a grained texture, light-brown stitching and black accents on the dial, with a leather hide engraved on the caseback. The brown strap is recycled fabric with beige flecks and dark-brown stitching, and its caseback shows the Earth. The beige rubber is the one to get if you plan to actually swim with this dive watch, and its caseback carries a car tire, because... well, you get it. All three close with a steel folding clasp.

The Favre Leuba Deep Raider Revival Jean Rousseau is limited to 33 pieces per version, 99 in total, priced at €2,700 each. That's the same price as the standard Deep Raider Revival on a steel bracelet. See more on the Favre Leuba website.