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Only Watch 2023 Favorites: Frederique Constant 

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.

The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.

In this post we highlight the Tourbillon Planétarium Only Watch 2023 from Frederique Constant, which has teamed with independent watchmaker extraordinaire Christiaan van der Klaauw. His planetarium watch, the smallest in the world and the only one produced in recent history for a wristwatch (the Ulysse Nardin Planetarium from 1990 was the first) and is melded with an in-house Frederique Constant tourbillon. Both appear within a glittering aventurine dial. 

The hand-finished piece is housed in a 42mm platinum case.

The watch boasts several premieres. It’s the first Frederique Constant Manufacture Tourbillon to share a watch with a planetarium and also the first Christiaan van der Klaauw piece of this type to feature a tourbillon. It’s also the first time that a Manufacture Frederique Constant timepiece has had an aventurine dial or a 42mm platinum case. It’s also the first time that a Frederique Constant watch has included a combined month and date display using hands on a single counter.

The watch’s heliocentric system brings together six moving discs in the same plane, each with its own planet completing its orbit around the sun in real time: Mercury (88 days), Venus (225 days), Earth (365 days), Mars (687 days), Jupiter (12 years) and Saturn (29 years). The wearer will have to wait almost thirty years to see Saturn, the outermost planet in this system, complete a full orbit. Around this, shooting stars and planets appear, with the colors of the planets pictured using the Only Watch 2023 palette.

Estimate: CHF 90,000 – 110,000.

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Featured Events

Frederique Constant Celebrates 35 Years and 31 Calibers

To celebrate a manufacturing milestone and its own 35th anniversary, Frederique Constant during Geneva Watch Days is launching the Classic Power Reserve Big Date Manufacture, a 40mm watch powered by Caliber FC-735, the watchmaker’s thirty-first manufacture caliber.

The new Frederique Constant Classic Power Reserve Big Date Manufacture, here pictured in a steel case.

And to spread the self-love, Frederique Constant is making the watch available in four versions, all of which feature displays indicating power reserve, date and moon phase.

One model features a rose gold case and a grey anthracite dial and will be a limited edition of 350. It will be offered on a brown alligator strap.

Two additional models, cased in steel with either a blue or silver dial, will join the watchmaker’s ongoing Manufacture collection.

These non-limited versions share the same polished steel case and blue alligator leather strap. (At $4,995 the steel edition with an in-house movement is a particularly strong example of this watchmaker’s goal to remain a manufacturer of ‘affordable’ luxury watches.)

A version in a platinum case and a meteorite dial (above) on a navy blue alligator strap will be issued as a limited edition of thirty-five and will be available later this fall.

Frederique Constant notes that the FC-735 is the watchmaker’s first caliber to offer a big date, a moon phase and a power reserve indicator together in one watch. 

Also notable is the fairly long fifty-hour power reserve built in to the watch and indicated at 9 o’clock. The dial is balanced out with the big date display between the 2 o’clock position and the 3 o’clock position and the bright moon phase display at the 6 o’clock position.

Frederique Constant again makes it a simple task to adjust and set all three of these displays. The time-set function and winding mechanism are all adjusted via the crown.

And as is typical of Frederique Constant Manufacture pieces, the caseback is fitted with clear sapphire, here allowing a view into the new FC-735 Manufacture caliber. 

Prices: $27,995 (platinum case–to debut later this year), $19,995 (rose gold case) and $4,995 (steel case). 

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The Watches

Frederique Constant Upgrades Classics

Frederique Constant adds four handsome new dress watches to its accessibly priced Classics collection. Each model combines an elegant dark grey or silver-color dial with a new, customized G100 La Joux-Perret movement, all set in a wrist friendly 38.5mm steel or rose-gold-plated case.

One of the new Frederique Constant Classics Premiere models, each with a new automatic movement boasting an extended power reserve (68 hours).

Frederique Constant uses this Premiere addition to its Classics collection to feature the new automatic movements, which represent an upgrade from earlier Sellita or ETA-based calibers used in the Classics series.

Primarily, the new automatic movement offers a superior power reserve of sixty-eight hours, considerably higher than the thirty-eight-hour reserve typical of the standard Classics models.

Frederique Constant displays the new movement through a special open caseback set with a glassbox that magnifies the movement, showing off its Côtes de Genève finish.

On the dial, the watchmaker sets applied indexes around a mother-of-pearl, diamond-setting or a snailed dial decoration. The dials also feature Roman numerals, Breguet-style blue-tinted hands and a railroad-style minute circle.

Frederique Constant offers its Classics Premiere collection in four variations (plus one diamond-set gold model not sold in the United States). The plated rose gold version with sun-ray dial and embossed center (above) is a limited edition of 500 pieces ($2,095); the steel version with a silver dial or a dark grey dial is limited to 500 pieces each ($1,895) and the steel model with mother-of-pearl dial and diamonds is limited to 300 pieces ($2,295.)

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Watches and Wonders 2023: Frederique Constant Classic Tourbillon Manufacture

During its first appearance at Watches and Wonders in Geneva, which this year concluded on April 2,  Frederique Constant unveiled a special thirty-fifth anniversary edition of its Classic Tourbillon Manufacture.

The new Frederique Constant Classic Tourbillon Manufacture, now measuring 39mm in diameter.

Offered in a now-smaller 39mm rose gold case and sporting a beautiful anthracite grey sun-brushed dial with gold hands, the new watch is a cleanly designed model that, at $27,595, is among the most ‘affordable’ in-house Swiss Made tourbillon-regulated watches available, a distinction in line with this Geneva manufacturer’s long-held aim to create high-value luxury watches.

As noted, this latest example of the Frederique Constant Classic Tourbillon Manufacture measures 39mm in diameter, the new size for the Classic Manufacture series. Previous examples of the watch measured 42mm in diameter. The three-hand watch continues to be powered by the in-house automatic FC-980 caliber, first developed in 2008.

Also celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary, Frédérique Constant offers the watch as an anniversary model in a limited edition of 150, each one individually numbered. In keeping with the brand’s own traditions, the tourbillon is exposed at the 6 o’clock position.

Frédérique Constant fits the movement with a silicon escapement wheel and anchor, which means the owner will benefit from a non-magnetic movement unaffected by variations in temperature.

The watchmaker also engraves each watch’s individual serial number on the rim of the sapphire caseback.

Through the back, the owner can eye (and display) the FC-980 caliber’s fine decor, which includes beveling, beading, circular graining, straight-grained flanks and mirror polishing.

The Frederique Constant Classic Tourbillon Manufacture comes on a dark matte brown leather strap with deployant clasp. Price: $27,595.

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The Watches

Frederique Constant Celebrates With New Worldtimers

To celebrate its thirty-fifth anniversary, Frederique Constant unveils two new versions of its 41mm Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture. 

Though one edition, an 18-karat rose gold limited edition of thirty-five, is not available directly in the United States, the second steel-cased model is being sold here.

The Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture, in a steel case.

The steel-cased unlimited reference offers a brown dial and matching strap, with a lighter brown shade dominating the dial’s Earth symbol. On the orb Frederick Constant reveals latitude and longitude lines. A sunray finish highlights the date disc at 6 o’clock. The dial also offers luminous, silver-colored appliqué hour markers that match the three central hands.

The back of the watch displays the Frederique Constant manufacture FC-718 automatic caliber.

As a classic worldtimer, the watch displays twenty-four cities around the center on the external disc. These stand-in for the globe’s twenty-four primary time zones. Just inside this band, a second disc displays the time in each reference city. Light and dark section denote daytime or nighttime in the referenced city.

This celebratory variation comes with three straps: chocolate brown alligator leather with a nubuck finish, a matching rubber strap and a polished, brushed steel three-link bracelet.

The Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture, in a gold case.

Frederique Constant places a soft blue dial within its gold model. As on the steel edition, the dial is slightly lighter within the center to better reveal the longitude and latitude lines on the engraved orb. Here, the hands and markers gold-colored and luminous.

For the gold model, Frederique Constant supplies an integrated blue alligator leather strap and a blue rubber strap.

Part of the watch’s success since its debut in 2012 is how simple it is to operate. All the features (hours, minutes, date, Worldtimer) can be adjusted using the crown thanks to the three-notch system Frederique Constant built in to the Manufacture FC-718 automatic caliber. The first click winds the watch, the second adjusts the date (upwards) and the reference city (downwards) and the third adjusts the time in the central display.

Price: $4,495 (steel model), and 25,995 euros (gold model). 

 

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