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Frederique Constant’s Change of Heart

Frederique Constant unveils a new look for its Classics Heart Beat Manufacture collection, revealing a new dial, new indexes and a retro 39mm case.

The Frederique Constant Classics Heart Beat Manufacture in a 39mm steel case. The new design is also offered with a pink gold case.

Perhaps the most notable change in the new design, which debuts this week during Geneva Watch Days,  is how the Geneva-based watchmaker is exposing the watch’s escapement, or ‘Heart Beat.’

Rather than the ‘comma-shaped’ aperture at the 12 o’clock position that characterized the dial of the Heart Beat collection since 2004, the new collection erases the comma in favor of a true circle that is now positioned at the 6 o’clock position.

The first Frederique Constant Heart Beat models in 1994 quickly became a signature design for what was then a young watchmaking company. The look has been emblematic for the company in the years since, and Frederique Constant has used the design to introduce its FC-910 manual-wind manufacture caliber in 2004, as well as its FC-930, the watchmakers’ first automatic caliber, a few years later.

Original size

The aperture update is only one aspect the Heart Beat’s redesign. A 39mm case size is a return to the original dimension of the Heart Beat Manufacture models, which have been offered in larger sizes in recent years. And the 2022 collection also boasts more classical Roman numerals on the dial, paired with thinner indexes.

Frederique Constant notes that the new, subtler indexes overlay a lacquered white dial and are paired with traditional railway markers, echoing watches of the early 20th century.  Finally, Frederique Constant revives the same hand design it used in 2004, with a slender leaf shape for the minutes and “heart” hand for the hours.

The onion crown on the watch, which will be retained on the new collection, winds an automatic FC-930-3 manufacture caliber, which offers a thirty-eight hour power reserve. Frederique Constant decorates the movement with fine pearling and Côtes de Genève stripes, visible through the open caseback.

Frederique Constant is offering the new Classics Heart Beat Manufacture, in two limited series’. The first is cased in pink gold on a brown alligator strap and limited to 93 pieces ($17,995). The second is made of steel on a black alligator strap and limited to 930 pieces ($4,395).  Availability is in December 2022

 

 

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The Watches

Bulgari Debuts Two Collaborations and New Pink Gold and Black Ceramic Watches

Especially notable among Bulgari’s late 2022 debuts, which premiere this week during Geneva Watch Days, are two special editions created in collaboration with Japanese designers. 

One watch, made with architect Kazuyo Sejima, is a limited edition Octo Finissimo with a mirror-effect dial, while the second is a silver-toned model series made with Japanese artist Sorayama that extends the recently revived Bulgari Aluminum collection.

The Octo Finissimo Sejima Edition stems from a collaboration between Bulgari and the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima.

Both these special editions arrive as part of an impressive, wide-ranging set of debuts for the Italo-Swiss watchmaker/jeweler.

The new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic, now in a satin-brushed rose gold case and with a subtle brown-lacquered dial.

The full range of Bulgari debuts, which we’ll detail in future posts, includes several premiere pink- or rose-gold-cased models within the Octo Finissimo collection.

The new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days debuts a new hand-wound manufacture movement, caliber BVL 199 SK, with an 8-day power reserve.

These include new gold watches within the Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days, the Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic  ($35,800) series and the Octo Finissimo Automatic reference.

The back of the new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days exposes the new caliber BVL 199 SK.

One of those debuts, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton 8 Days ($37,300), marks the launch of a sharp-looking new hand-wound manufacture movement, caliber BVL 199 SK, with an 8-day power reserve.

The new Bulgari Serpenti Seduttori Black.

Bulgari also added newly blackened steel or ceramic cases and bracelets to models within its Serpenti Seduttori, Serpenti Spiga and Bvlgari Bvlgari collections.

The new Bvlgari Bvlgari Black, available in 41mm and 33mm case sizes.
The new Bulgari Serpenti Spiga Ceramic boasts a 35mm black ceramic case and a rose gold bezel set with diamonds.

And finally, look for a new white gold Serpenti Seduttori Tourbillon set with black spinel and diamonds ($185,000).

The new white gold Serpenti Seduttori Tourbillon is set with black spinel and diamonds.

Octo Finissimo Sejima Edition

Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, who holds the 2010 Pritzker Prize among many other architecture awards, focuses the eye with a mirrored dial under a dot-pattern sapphire crystal on her version of the eight-sided Bulgari Octo Finissimo. The effect is mesmerizing, especially with the entire dial framed in a 36.6mm polished stainless steel case.

According to Bulgari, the idea bring together a “contrast between material and transparency, the visible and the invisible,” which Sejima devised in part to reflect the aesthetic codes apparent in her architectural work.

The architect’’s signature is inscribed on the sapphire crystal caseback, which opens up the  nicely decorated automatic Manufacture movement, BVL Calibre 138 – complete with (surprise!) a platinum micro-rotor. 

Bulgari will make the Octo Finissimo Sejima Edition as a 360-piece limited edition and will delivered it in a special mirrored steel box. Price: $14,100.

Bulgari’s new Aluminum Sorayama Special Edition.

Aluminum Sorayama

The shapes and textures on this Bulgari Aluminum Sorayama Special Edition are meant to recall the aesthetics of automobiles and airplanes of the 1930s and 1940s.

On the dial you’ll find pearlescent swirls, propeller-shaped hour-markers and only one numeral (2), said to be Sorayama’s lucky number. According to the artist, the swirls are inspired by the surface of Spirit of St. Louis, the airplane that Charles Lindbergh flew when he made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

The 40mm limited edition (of 1,000) is Bulgari’s third special edition Aluminum model since 2020, when Bulgari revived the 1998 design with automatic movements and updated technical features. Here, you’ll find a rubber bezel, water resistance to 100 meters and a crown and caseback made of reinforced black titanium.

The watch’s rubber strap also includes the watch’s namesake metal, with aluminum links and pin buckle. Inside Bulgari fits Beating inside the case is a mechanical self-winding movement with a 42-hour power reserve. Price: $3,300.  

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The Watches

Greubel Forsey GMT Centers the Globe

Greubel Forsey moves its titanium globe to the center of its new GMT Balancier Convexe, altering the watchmaker’s long-standing dial-borne universe in the process.

The new Greubel Forsey GMT Balancier Convexe.

The globe, an eye-catching component of the watchmaker’s GMT, GMT Earth, GMT Quadruple Tourbillon and GMT Sport, appears at the heart of the new 46.5mm titanium watch, which debuts this week at Geneva Watch Days. In those earlier GMT models, the globe was positioned along the edge of the case.

The new GMT Balancier Convexe joins six existing models within the independent watchmaker’s relatively new Convexe collection.  

As Greubel Forsey centers the globe on the new watch, the orb becomes a more visible component. The new design “replaces all previous GMT models and features,” according to Greubel Forsey.

Set within what appears to be an amphitheater just under the sapphire crystal, the globe rotates once per day as it plays a key role in the watch’s contemporary depiction of universal time.

GMT Balancier Convexe, showing inclined balance in foreground.

Three rings frame the amphitheater. These denote local time hours and minutes, as well as universal time. Helpfully, Greubel Forsey darkens the background when the time indicates night and brightens it when the time is during the day.

 

Greubel Forsey explains that its finishers have polished the inside of the case “so that it mirrors the escapement platform, the Terrestrial globe, and nearly every element visible on the dial side, thus adding incredible depth to this new construction.”

Inclined Balance

The centrally located globe isn’t the only premiere here. For the first time within a GMT model, the watchmaker’s signature 30-degree inclined balance wheel vibrates nearby, held by a flat black-polished and barrel-polished steel balance wheel bridge on polished steel pillars. Adjacent to this, note the small seconds, displayed with a blue gold hand.

Where the dial-side of the new watch is impressively redesigned, the back of the watch retains Greubel Forsey’s signature disc with 24 time zones indicating the UTC time. The only variation here is a minor one:  the UTC of Paris has been replaced by La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, home for Greubel Forsey.

All this drama is framed by Greubel Forsey’s unusual convex case, with its curved geometry and undulating lines that, along the top, are higher on the sides and lower at the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions. The case itself is also asymmetric, with a diameter of 46.5mm around the bezel and 43.5mm around the case band. This means it nicely hugs the curve of the wrist.

Greubel Forsey will make sixty-six GMT Balancier Convexe timepieces at the rate of twenty-two per year between 2022 and 2024. Each is available on either a titanium bracelet or a textured rubber strap. Price: CHF 350,000.

 

Specifications: Greubel Forsey GMT Balancier Convexe

Displays: Hours and minutes, small seconds, 2nd time zone GMT, rotating globe with universal time, day-and-night, 24 time zones universal time, summer time, winter time.

Movement: Manual-wind with 423 parts, including 59 in the escapement. Two coaxial series-coupled fast-rotating barrels (1 turn in 3.2 hours), equipped with a fixed mainspring-bridle. Bridges and main plates in titanium with frosted, polished beveling and countersinks, straight-grained flank. Escapement is inclined at a 30° angle, flat black polished steel, polished beveling and countersinks, straight-grained flanks, polished steel pillars, flat black-polished.

Case: Caseband diameter 43.50mm, bezel diameter: 46.50mm, case height: 13.75 mm, height on sapphire crystals: 17.40 mm. Titanium case with curved sapphire crystal, three-dimensional, variable geometry-shaped bezel, hand-polished, profiled lugs, screwed fixing, transparent back with curved and high domed synthetic sapphire crystal, engraved GMT pusher, titanium security screws, raised engravings. 

Dial: Terrestrial globe in titanium, relief-engraved continents, ocean blue treatment, day-and-night UTC indicator in titanium, engraved and lacquered, GMT indicator in gold, amphitheater hour-ring with engraved and lacquered minute-circle, small seconds indicator in gold.

Hands: Hours and minutes with SuperLumiNova, red triangles, 2nd time zone GMT indicator, blue triangle, small seconds in polished blued steel, flat black-polished head.

Strap: Non-animal material, rubber with text in relief, titanium folding clasp, engraved GF logo. Also upon request: 3-row metal bracelet in titanium, folding clasp with integrated fine adjustment, engraved GF logo.

Price: CHF 350,000.

 

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Oris

Oris Launches Divers Sixty-Five With Caliber 400

Oris fits its acclaimed Caliber 400 into a full production Divers Sixty-Five model for the first time as the independent Swiss watchmaker launches the new Divers Sixty-Five 12 Hour Calibre 400.

The new Oris Divers Sixty-Five 12 Hour Caliber 400.

Oris this week also debuts a new Aquis Date series with brightly hued mother-of-pearl dials, available on a steel bracelet. Oris debuted both nautical-themed watches during this week’s Geneva Watch Days, a late summer watch show in Geneva that runs through September 1.

Long reserve

As an in-house movement with a long power reserve, the Oris Caliber 400 series is one of the few in-house Swiss automatic movements boasting a long power reserve (five days). It’s inclusion here also means the new watch, in addition to the long power reserve, offers the caliber’s elevated levels of anti-magnetism, a ten-year warranty and ten-year recommended service intervals.

Adding a Caliber 400 series movement to models within the Divers Sixty-Five collection extends the availability of the movement’s heightened features to one of the watchmaker’s most popular collections. Oris has already placed a Caliber 400 series movement into several of its bedrock collections, including within larger Aquis Date watches and within the ProPilot X collection.

But as the name of the new watch implies, Oris has also added a 12-hour bi-directional rotating bezel, which means this new black-dialed model is also the first Divers Sixty-Five offering a second time zone indicator bezel.

The new watch also boasts a sapphire crystal case back and the choice of either a leather strap or metal bracelet. Prices: $3,500 (leather strap) and $3,700 (steel bracelet). 

A trio of additions to the Oris Aquis Date 36.5mm Collection.

New dials

Oris is also introducing a trio of new Aquis Date 36.5 mm models with colorful mother-of-pearl dials. 

The shimmering dials, in Blush Pink, Aegean Blue and Seafoam Green, are both eye-catching and apparently on trend, given the success of pastel and blue dials among many other watchmakers in recent months.

The trio also enhances the smaller-diameter offering within the Oris Aquis Date collection, which primarily offers larger-cased options.

All Aquis Date 36.5 mm models are water resistant to 300 meters and are equipped with Sellita-based automatic Oris Caliber 733.

Prices: $2,400 (steel bracelet only). 

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The Watches

TAG Heuer Launches Blue and White Aquaracer

TAG Heuer continues to update its Aquaracer Professional 300 collection with a new blue, yellow and white GMT edition that offers a hyper-clean, highly visible model to this serious dive series.

The new 43mm-steel-cased TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 GMT.

TAG Heuer says its designers opted for the ocean-hued color scheme to “represent the sky, the sun, the water and the crashing waves near the shore.” 

The dial on the new 43mm-steel-cased TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 GMT retains the collection’s signature horizontal lines, here in dark blue, which makes the white luminous hands and markers all the more visible. Yellow comes in to the picture via the rhodium-plated central seconds hand, which has a yellow lacquer tip, and a yellow GMT hand.

TAG Heuer excels with it bezels, and this model’s two-color bi-directional rotating ceramic bezel underscores that sentiment. Set with a 24-hour GMT scale, the markers are engraved into the ceramic and then filled with contrasting colors: black for day time and white for night.

Note the detail where the numerals 18 and 6 seamlessly which cross the point where the blue and white ceramic meet.

In addition to signature fluted, 12-sided Aquaracer bezel and the generous luminosity, the watch’s dive specifications echo those found in earlier Professional 300 models, namely a screwed and protected crown, 300 meters of water resistance, a sapphire crystal, and a double safety clasp.

Like other TAG Heuer Aquaracer Professional 300 GMT models, this new edition features a steel back decorated with a repeating hexagon motif and the ‘scaphander’ diving suit, first seen on the 2004 Aquaracer.Inside, TAG Heuer fits its Caliber 7 automatic movement, with a power reserve of fifty hours.

TAG Heuer will offer the new Aquaracer Professional 300 GMT on either a stainless steel metal bracelet or on a deep midnight blue rubber strap to match the dial and bezel. Both feature an ergonomic fine adjustment system. 

Prices: $3,500 (rubber strap) and $3,800 (steel bracelet).

 

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