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Favre Leuba - Bivouac calibrating the barometer

  1. aeroengineer Nov 3, 2016

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    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?
     
    unnamed.jpg
  2. bd-chrono Nov 6, 2016

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    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.
     
    Mark020 and aeroengineer like this.
  3. aeroengineer Nov 7, 2016

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    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.
     
  4. ncstate1201 Nov 20, 2016

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    Wow great watch, bummer on the crystal one more thing to try to remember to look from if I come across one
     
  5. cjoedaniel May 28, 2019

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    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...
     
  6. Mark020 not the sharpest pencil in the ΩF drawer May 29, 2019

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    Good luck.... Don't think that will be an easy part to find
     
  7. Adri Wonders why he can't edit this message May 29, 2019

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    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.
     
  8. Tony C. Ωf Jury member May 29, 2019

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    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.
     
  9. cjoedaniel May 29, 2019

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    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.
     
    Resized_20190524_130857.jpg
  10. Adri Wonders why he can't edit this message May 30, 2019

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    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:whistling:.


    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)
    IMG_0218 2.jpg

    Here also a stolen pic from the net with a Bivouac 53203 with the same bezel but etched
    IMG_2916 (2) 2.jpg

    The colors of the etched bezels Tony's and this above are also the same so it could be true (black and red).
     
  11. X5Mita Jun 4, 2019

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    Great watch!
     
  12. cjoedaniel Jun 14, 2019

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    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? IMG_20190614_140732.jpg
     
  13. cjoedaniel Jun 14, 2019

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    And here's the caseback.
    IMG_20190614_140716.jpg
     
  14. Muddlerminnow Dec 1, 2020

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    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):