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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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The Watches

Louis Vuitton Adds Fluorescent Colors to Sapphire Tambour Moon

Louis Vuitton extends one of its most dramatic ongoing collections, the Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève, adding two hard-to-miss new models. 

One of two new Louis Vuitton Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon models, each cased in fluorescent sapphire.

In addition to the collection’s existing clear, blue- or pink-tinted sapphire-cased models, Louis Vuitton now adds one new watch cased in fluorescent green sapphire and the other in a fluorescent yellow sapphire case.

Touted by Louis Vuitton as “the first watch collection with a sapphire case to bear Geneva Seal,” the new The Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon “Poinçon de Genève” debuts are brilliant in their new color.

Created by heating aluminum oxide at temperatures of around 2,000° Celsius, the sapphire cases are each cut from a from a single block of colored synthetic sapphire. 

The material protects Louis Vuitton’s LV90 caliber, a high-performance openwork movement regulated by a flying tourbillon. The hand-wound movement offers a superior power reserve of eighty hours.

Louis Vuitton explains that each case requires 420 hours of complex operations on digitally controlled machines working with diamond tools. “The 10mm thick monobloc part alone, comprising the case middle, the bezel and the glass, requires 100 hours of milling and 150 hours of polishing. The case back needs fifty hours of machining and sixty hours of hand and machine finishing to become fully transparent and ready for assembly. Finally, the transparent bridge bearing the LV logo takes twenty hours of cutting and forty hours of manual finishing,” according to the manufacturer.

Louis Vuitton attaches the case to a leather strap using black PVD-treated titanium lugs, attached by screws. The watch’s indexes and brand-name lettering are lacquered in white for the green sapphire version, and black for the yellow sapphire model. The 42.5mm by 9.9mm case is water-resistant to 30 meters thanks to a transparent gasket.

Created in a limited production of twenty for each color, each new Tambour Moon Flying Tourbillon Poinçon de Genève watches is priced at 400,000 euros.

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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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Patek Philippe to Exhibit Rare Handcrafts in Geneva 

Starting April 1, Patek Philippe will display its new Rare Handcrafts 2023 collection during a public exhibition at the Patek Philippe historic headquarters on 41 Rue du Rhône in Geneva.

On display at the exhibition is this Leopard Pocket watch with wood marquetry, hand engraving and champlevé enamel.

On display until April 15, the collection will show nearly seventy one-of-a-kind or limited-edition watches and clocks made by Patek Philippe artisans showing their wide-ranging skills and creativity. 

The annual exhibit this year will display timepieces that demonstrate skill in Grand Feu cloisonné enameling, miniature painting on enamel, grisaille or flinqué or paillonné or champlevé enameling, manual engraving, micro-marquetry, manual guilloching and gemsetting. 

Patek Philippe’s Rare Handcrafts 2023 collection includes sixty-seven creations in total consisting of twenty-two dome clocks and miniature dome clocks, three table clocks, twelve pocket watches and thirty wristwatches. This exhibition is the public’s only opportunity to see unique pieces and limited editions before they are delivered to private collections.

The exhibits are divided into two main areas: natural beauty and human adventure.

To make the cat, the marquetry maker cut out and assembled 363 tiny veneer parts and 50 inlays, together spanning 21 species of wood of different colors, textures and veining.

Within the nature area, you’ll see, for example, the Leopard pocket watch (reference 995/137J-001) which combines wood marquetry, manual engraving and champlevé enamel.

The dial on The Leopard, in black-tinted tulipwood, presents applied Breguet numerals and leaf-shaped hands, all in yellow gold. A faceted yellow sapphire decorates the crown.

In the second area Patek Philippe gathers timepieces that pay tribute to arts, traditions and culture, with a particular set of timepieces dedicated to motor racing.

The 1948 Nations Grand Prix Calatrava wristwatch features a dial in cloisonné and paillonné enamel enriched with miniature painting on enamel.

One of these, the 1948 Nations Grand Prix Calatrava wristwatch (reference 5189G-001) features a dial in cloisonné and paillonné enamel and miniature painting on enamel.

This limited edition of ten watches shines a spotlight on the famous Nations Grand Prix, held in Geneva from 1946 to 1950.

This complete showcase also includes a selection of historical rare handcraft timepieces on loan from the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. 

The Rare Handcrafts 2023 exhibition requires no entry fee and will be open to the public from April 1 to April 15, 2023, every day except Sundays, from 11 am to 6 pm (last entry at 5 pm), at the Patek Philippe Salons on Rue du Rhône 41 in Geneva. Visitors are requested to pre-register online. 

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The Watches

Frederique Constant Darkens its Worldtimer

Frederique Constant celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Classics Worldtimer Manufacture collection by offering an all-black edition of the watch, one of the Geneva watchmaker’s best-selling designs.

Frederique Constant’s new Classics Worldtimer Manufacture Globetrotter Edition features a black PVD-titanium-coated case and a black dial.

 

Limited to 300 pieces, the new Classics Worldtimer Manufacture Globetrotter Edition features a black PVD-titanium-coated case and a black dial. For the first time, the names of the twenty-four reference cities featured on the city disc have been replaced by the airport codes at the cities.

The watchmaker accentuates the dial’s global display by embossing the continents and depicting the oceans using a sunray finish. The sunray guilloché subdial at 6 o’clock displays the date via a hand-polished black hand that matches the hour, minute and seconds hands. 

The only white elements on the dial are the airport codes on the city disc, the day indication on the 24-hour disk and the applied indexes. All are filled with a generous helping of luminous material.

Easy to use

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 an Frederique Constant’s own three-notch system. 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.

To read the dial is equally straight-forward. The local time (with the central hands) and home time (via the moving flange) are automatically synchronized with each other. Day and night time zones are noted by their dark or white hues.

Frederique Constant has decorated the watch’s FC-718 movement with fine perlage decoration visible through a sapphire crystal caseback. Note the caliber’s blued screws and rose gold-plated oscillating weight adorned with vertical satin-finishing and “Frederique Constant Manufacture” engraving. 

Price: $4,495. 

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