Le Forban Sécurité Mer is a French dive watch brand born in 1969 — one of the rare French marques to have equipped the Marine Nationale and the PATMAR (Patrouille Maritime) naval air patrol throughout the 1970s and 80s. After two dynamic decades and a final series based on the legendary Monnin model, the brand disappeared in 1989. Thirty years later, in 2019, two passionate collectors — Jean-Sébastien Coste and Océane Jolivet — resurrected the brand with uncompromising ambition: to revive the spirit of French utilitarian horology. Working alongside seasoned watch designer Eddy Burgener, the trio gave shape to a new flagship model — the Malouine — launched exactly fifty years after the brand's founding. Today, every Le Forban timepiece is assembled, tested, and regulated in Rennes, Brittany, by a team of watchmakers recognized among the finest French artisans. Collections are named after French port cities — Malouine (Saint-Malo), Brestoise (Brest), Rochelaise (La Rochelle), Marseillaise (Marseille) — honoring the maritime heritage that defines the brand's soul. The name Le Forban means pirate: a bandit of the seas, an intrepid navigator — a fitting name for a maison that refused to stay lost.
Le Forban Sécurité Mer
1969
Le Forban Sécurité Mer is founded with its first Skindiver collection — sport watches designed for all conditions, distributed in sporting goods stores across France.
1970
Le Forban becomes one of the rare French watch brands to officially equip the Marine Nationale and PATMAR naval air patrol pilots — a decade-long chapter of French military horology.
1989
After two decades and a final Marine Nationale series based on the Monnin model, Le Forban Sécurité Mer encounters difficulties and disappears.
2019
Jean-Sébastien Coste and Océane Jolivet relaunch Le Forban Sécurité Mer, introducing the Malouine — a new flagship model, 50 years after the brand's original founding.
