You never really know where the next horological gem will be coming from. Rarely from mainstream brands but most likely from the micro and independent ones, as the former have legacy and heritage they cannot disrespect, and the latters have none they could embarrass. Because generally speaking, creating something new is easier than building on top of decades-long worth of ideas and releases, as whatever comes cannot be compared to something that was there before. So it appears to be easier for a new brand to come up with something rare, unique, and exquisite, and it is much harder for a long-established brand to do so. But, as we’re about to see, there is another situation we need to examine more often: when a brand that did something particularly well and sometimes unique is revived after passing away as it happened to many since the black-hole-like period of the 1960s/70s. In that particular case, the brand was recreated to celebrate its singularity, whatever shape it took. 

One such brand you have most likely never heard of is Le Forban Sécurité Mer. With a name that roughly translates to “The Pirate Maritime Security,” a unique contradiction of words which does indicate the brand’s sea-inclined nature, it was founded in 1969 with a collection of skin divers, then chronographs and many other types of sports watches before it closed down in 1989. It was brought back to life in 2019 by Jean-Sebastien Coste and Océane Jolivet, respectively a watch collector and graphic designer, the duo working through Le Forban’s old catalogs which they refresh and re-issue. Their latest and fifth collection is called Marseillaise and is breathes and bubbles professional-grade dive watches from the late 1970s mounted on a Monnin chassis. (We will get back to this later.) So the concept isn’t new, the model either, but it comes with a few twists which make the Marseillaise a logical sequel to a historical collection which looked pretty neat already. 

The Specifications 

Whenever a brand recreates (or updates) an old model, it basically creates a better version of it, both from design and technical standpoints. In my own experience, the visual improvements come in the form of more balanced proportions, more refined lines, curves, or edges, without ever denaturing the core soul of the model the brand drew inspiration from. The technical improvements come from upgrading to modern materials and using better machines to make and finish the various parts of the watch. In other words, and again generally speaking, today we can get much better made watches than we could before for relatively good prices. And though what makes a good price is debatable, here I will say that the asking 940€ (including VAT) or $1,091 USD is more than fair for what you get—mechanically and visually. And what also often happens with a re-edition is the resizing of the watch: 40.8 x 46 x 11.95mm for the Marseillaise and 42 x 46 x 13mm for the OG. 

Le Forban, in its old and new forms, specializes in robust sea-faring tool watches which have a somewhat classical appearance which conceal their tough insides. I find the Marseillaise to look vintage and familiar, as many brands used similar dial configurations and Monnin cases in the past, whilst looking like its own thing on account of a few design elements we will get back to in a bit. What we will go back to now is the Monnin case which was used by many, many brands and made by Swiss case-maker Georges Monnin* for multiple brands but more specifically, Heuer. And today there are several brands that get their own versions of the Monnin cases made elsewhere which used the original cases a few decades ago until that Georges Monnin closed down**. Though it should be noted that the group behind Wolbrook/Douglas/H.G.P./Elgé bought the name “G. Monnin” but is not related to the original case-maker. That happens as it did with Le Forban. 

All of this is to say that the Marseillaise is made with a Monnin-type case, a superb one I would add, which is paired to 250 meters of water resistance (screw-down crown and case-back,) a flat sapphire crystal with multiple layers of inner anti-reflective coating, a unidirectional 120-click bezel complete with an aluminum insert, generous applications of SuperLuminova Old Radium lume on the hands, printed markers, and bezel pip, a Sellita SW200-1 caliber inside (4Hz/±38 hours of power reserve,) and a patented and first-in-the-world Dive Bund® FKM rubber strap—indeed a Bund-style strap entirely made of rubber which can also be easily transformed into a regular two-piece strap by de-anchoring the case from the strap at both ends and sliding the two individual pieces through the two large keepers glued to the “Bund” part. I never cared for a Bund strap before until I saw it in a rubber configuration. 

*According to some sources the actual case manufacturer was Marchand, Roth, and Petignat (MRP SA) which sold the famed case to Geoges Monnin, a watch brand which white labeled dive watches to other brands and after whom this case design was named. 

**It also appears that a version of the original Georges Monnin brand still exists. 

Design 

There are two ways through which to look at the design of the Marseillaise. First, what comes from the original model circa 1979 including the dial, case, and bezel and how its soul was perfectly preserved and transferred through the decades. Second, how Jean-Sebastien and Océane tweaked the design of the original model to make it their own and which made of the new something I felt hugely compelled to write about. You see, the new is not a lazy copy/paste of the old, but something fresh which drew inspiration from something that came before. Remember the spiel I made in the introduction? The difference between new and old brands and how they approach creating new collections? Well, the Marseillaise is the perfect example of how someone can build upon a legacy and heritage whilst molding new footprints into freshly poured concrete. In other words: today’s Le Forban made of the Marseillaise its own collection and that couldn’t have been easy to do. 

To now keep things real and less rhetorical, let’s analyze its design bit-by-bit. The first element which stands out (to me) is the dial-to-bezel ratio which is superb. On the old the bezel insert was wider and therefore shrunk the dial, whilst on the new the bezel insert is much narrower which makes it possible for the dial to expand and fill up the horizontal space within it. Roughly 2.8mm and 27.6mm respectively, which I do not believe correspond to any Golden Ratio of sort but which can put things a little bit in perspective. The wide dial is also occupied by large hour markers—batons at the six and nine, inverted triangle at the twelve, and circles everywhere else—delineated by ultra thin yellow lines and printed on a sunburst black dial. So the contrast between the dial and markers is intense, therefore making the watch easy to read, so are the polished skin-diver types of hands which are made of large real estates of lume and thin borders. 

The arrow-shaped minute hand is particularly compelling and easy to see and align with the bezel markings, as its tip slightly crosses over the printed hour markers to get close to it. At the three we find a framed date aperture made of beveled sides and black numerals printed on a white disc for superlative legibility. (Date discs do not always have to be color-matched to the dials I say.) At the periphery of the latter we find a simple minute track where the 10-minute increments are printed with numerals, an absent 24-hour military scale the OG had which makes the dial of the Marseillaise cleaner and more modern, and an omission which made it possible for the brand to add its distinct logo above the pinion and the model name, depth rating, and French flag below it without creating a visual traffic jam. Before I forget: the Marseillaise also comes in an Abyss Blue variant also with a sunburst dial but with white accents. (C3 SuperLuminova instead of “eggshell” Old Radium.) 

And then there is the case. Earlier I mentioned that the Monnin-inspired stainless steel apparatus was particularly nice and I did mean it. (I always mean what I say.) The case comes with the characteristic wide and rounded lugs which just ever so slightly turn down towards the wrist, polished chamfers which increasingly widen as they contour the lugs, fully polished slab-sided flanks, and an overall rounded-off profile which is visually compelling and comfortable to wear on the wrist. The transitions between the brushed and polished surfaces are seamless, the coin-edge knurling on the thin bezel is well-machined, making the bezel easy to grip and operate, and the mid-sized crown is perfectly tucked-in within the stubby crown guards. In the middle of the case-back—and popping its head through a port-hole cut-out from the Dive Bund® FKM rubber strap, we see a superbly machined squid which is embossed and finished with a pearlescent matte texture. 

The Heart of the Matter

Throughout the description of the Le Forban Marseillaise I kinda lost track of where I was going with my thoughts or what point I was trying to make because there are many angles through which to look at this model. There is the historical angle of an old and successful brand being revived; there is the technical angle of having made a mechanically sound tool watch; and there is the design angle of having dynamically revisited an ultra classic 1970s/80s dive watch design to remove a bit of the old and add a tad of modern and a big dash of singularity. From pure mechanical and finish standpoints the Marseillaise is well worth the asking price of 940€/$1,091 USD on account of the long and healthy list of specs and good finish of the case and dial. From a pure design standpoint the Marseillaise is rigorously balanced, sportively elegant, and refined, as in vintage horology refined but not luxurious refined, the former being something brands should strive for and the latter stand clear of. 

In other words, this model is everything but a lazy and easy re-creation of an old model which the original Le Forban used to make and which the new Le Forban thought might be a good idea to remake in order to make a few bucks from it. No, clearly Jean-Sebastien and Océane put a great deal of care and effort in reinventing this model to make it stand out from the many 1970s/80s divers that were also made with Monnin cases and the classic batons-triangle-circles dial layout and date at the three. The Marseillaise is nice, very nice. 

Conclusion 

The aforementioned price of 940€/$1,091 is for the Marseillaise on the Dive Bund® FKM rubber strap and for an extra 50€ you can get the watch on a three-link stainless bracelet with a butterfly deployant clasp. Or buy the watch on the rubber and add the bracelet for 129€ or by the watch on the bracelet and add 99€ for the Dive Bund® strap. I suggest getting both if you can so that you can dress the Marseillaise up and down quite easily. Bonus point for this release: it is readily available to purchase on the brand’s website which does feel like a bonus we don’t often get with micro and independent watch brands.

Thanks for reading.