A pioneering voyage has set sail to the Central Arctic Ocean from Nome, Alaska (USA) on 15th of August. Two 50-foot yachts are sailing across almost half of the 3,000,000 sq. km area of international waters around the North Pole, which is ice-free and now navigable by surface vessels. The 10-member crew on these yachts could be among the first to reach the furthest north ever sailed. Favre-Leuba, Switzerland’s second-oldest watch brand with its iconic watches Raider Harpoon and the Raider Bivouac 9000, is celebrating its 280th anniversary in 2017 and is now the indispensable companion of this Arctic Misson co-led by renowned Artic explorer Pen Hadow and Arctic specialist yachtsman Erik deJong. There are two important tools that Hadow will be using in this critical mission—a notebook to record his findings, and the Favre-Leuba Raider Harpoon – to help him record date and time of the events, and research sightings and information they come across. The unique method of time telling featured on the Harpoon allowed for easy and clear reading, the blue luminous indicators allowed good visibility even in the dark, and the helium valve and 500m water resistance allows the explorer to dive into the ice-cold waters should it be required. Favre Leuba, interestingly, was taken over by the Tata Group on November 16, 2011, after being managed by eight generations of the Favre family up to the 1980s. With Favre-Leuba, headquartered in Switzerland, the Indian industrial conglomerate is pursuing a sustainable long-term strategy based on the history of the brand and the values it embodies.
