FREDERIQUE CONSTANT

Founded in 1988, Frederique Constant is a Swiss watchmaking manufacture based in Geneva. Having celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2023, the Brand continues to showcase its constantly advancing watchmaking expertise as it pursues its aim: providing Swiss Made luxury watches at fair prices. Through the decades, Frederique Constant has been characterised by creativity and inventiveness – and even more so by mechanical ingenuity and pragmatism.

Born out of the shared passion of an independent entrepreneurial couple, Aletta and Peter Stas, Frederique Constant has written its own rules, blazing a trail into territory where none had dared venture before. Today the brand can proudly offer a range of quartz and mechanical models – and most importantly, a collection of 31 calibres designed, developed, and assembled in its own Manufacture at Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. These movements include Tourbillon, Perpetual Calendar and Flyback Chronograph complications, along with the Monolithic, a type of escapement never before seen in watchmaking made out of a single piece of silicon, beating at a rate of 40Hz.

Frederique Constant presently has close to 3,000 points of sale in 120 countries. To pursue its international expansion and develop new synergies, since 2016 the Frederique Constant Group (Frederique Constant, Alpina Watches, Ateliers deMonaco) has been part of the Japanese group Citizen.

The Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture epitomises this approach. “Highlife” is the revival of a legendary line, part of an historic collection that has shaped the face of luxurious and affordable contemporary Swiss Made watchmaking. “Perpetual Calendar” describes a level of complication to which few brands have access, an indication of technical mastery patiently acquired over the course of more than 30 years’ watchmaking experience. Finally, “Manufacture” is a declaration, about belonging to an exclusive club of watchmakers capable of designing, producing, assembling and testing their own timepieces.

Equipped with the FC-775 movement, in-house developed, produced, and assembled, the Highlife Perpetual Calendar Manufacture illustrates the Maison’s watchmaking expertise. Characterised by three counters, day at 9 o’clock, month and leap year at 12 o’clock, date at 3 o’clock, it is completed by a moon phase at 6 o’clock. Discreet controllers make it possible, as with the crown, to adjust all the indications. For optimum legibility, the hand-polished hands and index hour markers are tinged with luminescent material. Beating at a frequency of 28,800 vph, it has a power reserve of 38 hours. Its perlage and Côtes de Genève can be seen through the sapphire crystal caseback.

Fully conceived, developed, produced, assembled, adjusted, and encased in our workshops in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland, the manufacturing process of the Manufacture collection timepieces requires extensive work. All the details are executed by hand, mostly, for the pure pleasure of the connoisseurs of high-quality watchmaking.

First devised in the late eighteenth century and patented in 1801, the tourbillon is designed to offset the effects of gravity on the watch movement by keeping the escapement in constant motion to preserve an ideal running rate. This meticulous procedure keeps timepieces more accurate; the accuracy of the Classic Tourbillon Manufacture is guaranteed for thirty-eight hours.
Frederique Constant has not simply copied a 220-year-old complication, though. Fifteen years ago, the Manufacture added a silicon escapement wheel and anchor. As a result, owners benefit from a movement that is more resistant to the adverse effects of magnetism and temperature variations – and thus even more precise, true to the tourbillon’s original vocation.