Supporting the Sherpas: Favre-Leuba Auctions Everest Watch

Favre-Leuba is auctioning off the Raider Bivouac 9000 which summitted Mt. Everest with Adrian Ballinger in May of 2018, with all the proceeds given to the Alex Lowe Foundation, which has set up the Khumbu Climbing Centre to support the indigenous community of Nepali Sherpas to make climbing and trekking in the mountains safer.

Ballinger, while wearing the Favre-Leuba Raider Bivouac 9000, set a new home-to-home speed record for Everest. “My Bivouac 9000 was with me every day, performing flawlessly,” Ballinger says. “From my home altitude at 1,900 meters, to the Tibetan city of Lhasa at 3,650 meters, to Everest Base Camp at 5,200 meters, and eventually all the way to the summit, I always knew I could count on accurate readings, enabling me to place camps in ideal locations, and judge my health and energy based on my altitude gains versus time.

“Accurate barometric pressure readings from my Bivouac 9000 were also crucial overnight in camps, helping me to determine weather changes and have advance warnings of storms,” he continues. “On our final summit push, made in a small window of good weather between weather systems, the Bivouac barometer’s upward trend confirmed our remote weather forecasting and gave us the confidence to make the summit. Being able to trust this real-time data is indispensable in one of the harshest environments on earth.

“When climbing in the ‘Death Zone’ (above 8,000 meters), every minute counts, and setting and then living by strict turnaround times saves lives,” Ballinger concludes. “My Bivouac 9000 was with me the whole way, easy to read and reliably keeping me on pace to summit and descend safely before running out of time. Having a timepiece without a battery is essential when working at extreme altitudes in temperatures that reach below -40 degrees Celsius. The Bivouac 9000’s all-manual construction gave me confidence to continue and reach the summit and success.”

Adrian Ballinger and Favre-Leuba Raider Bivouac 9000
Adrian Ballinger and Favre-Leuba Raider Bivouac 9000

Favre-Leuba is committed to supporting climbing, diving and other adventure sports with its line of purpose-built watches, like the Raider Bivouac 9000 and the Raider Bathy 120 Memodepth. This auction deepens that commitment.

“On behalf of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation and the Khumbu Climbing Center, we are thrilled to be partnering with Favre-Leuba and Alpenglow Expeditions to auction the Bivouac 9000 watch that Adrian Ballinger wore to the summit of Everest,” says Jenni Lowe-Anker, president of the foundation. “Knowing that the entire proceeds from this auction will support the Sherpa and indigenous climbing community directly is a most meaningful outcome. For 16 years, the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation has supported the Khumbu Climbing Center to increase the safety of Nepali climbers and high-altitude workers through education for technical climbing skills, wilderness first aid and state-of-the-art rescue techniques. In spring of 2018, there were over 500 Nepali working on the slopes of Everest who had received training from the Khumbu Climbing Center.”

Details of the auction are as follows:

• Date of auction: 12th of May 2019

• Location: Geneva, Switzerland

• Preview in Taiwan: 2nd and 3rd May 2019

• Preview in Geneva: 9th, 10th, and 11th of May 2019

Get out and bid for this great watch supporting this great cause.

Technical Specifications

Movement

Hand-wound FL311 movement, based on the EMC 3903M caliber; altimeter and power-reserve indicator; power reserve of 65 hours

Functions

Hours, minutes, small seconds, central hand to display altitudes of 3,000 m per full rotation, sub-dial for displaying altitudes of up to 9,000 m and air pressure in hPa, power-reserve indicator, date display

Case

Bidirectional rotating bezel with anodized aluminium insert; sapphire crystal with antireflection coating on both sides; aligned case back; diameter 48 mm, water-resistant up to 3 bar/30 m

Strap

Gray antelope leather with pin buckle

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