Henry-A. Favre

Henry-A. Favre (1908-1972) was a Swiss industrialist, heir to the Favre-Leuba watchmaking firm, and chairman of SAPHIR Group, which controlled Jaeger-LeCoultre in the 1970s.

Henry-A. Favre was born in Fleurier in 1908, son of Henri-A. Favre-Leuba (1865-1961). After earning a doctorate in law in Zurich, Favre worked as a lawyer there for a while before turning his attention to the family watchmaking business, Favre-Leuba. He served as representative for Favre-Leuba in India for a few years before World War II, returning to Geneva to work at the company's headquarters afterward. He was commercial director in the 1940s before rising to become chairman of the board and managing director following his father's death in 1961.

When George Ketterer traded his shares of SAPIC (which owned both Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin) for control of the latter company in 1965, Favre saw an opportunity. He purchased a majority stake in the remainder, now called SAPHIR, giving him control of Jaeger-LeCoultre, LeCoultre et Cie, and Jaeger in Switzerland. He also gained a board seat on Chronos Holding, which retained 23% of SAPHIR, and Jaeger in Paris.

He was also a member of the office and the central committee and then the council of the Swiss Watch Federation. For several years, he chaired the FH markets commission and its developing countries working group as well as the joint Anglo-Swiss committee, succeeding Louis Huguenin. He was also involved in local government, including as municipal councilor and deputy mayor and mayor of Bellevue.

Henry-A. Favre died on December 8, 1972.