The Frederique Constant Flyback Chronograph Manufacture has been eveloped in-house from scratch over a six year period, manufactured components in-house, and finally assembled the caliber in-house. Most important however is that Frederique Constant offers its watches with this in-house Flyback Chronograph Manufacture Caliber at Euro 3695 retail.
This collection introduces two main versions, one that is essentially casual looking with a silver or dark grey smooth dial; and another more classical looking with a silver dial, featuring a “Clou de Paris” guilloché decoration, black printed roman numerals and Breguet-style hands. Both these versions are available in stainless steel or in rose gold-plated stainless steel. Three counters are placed at 3, 6 and 9 o’clock displaying the 30 minute counter, date by hand, and small seconds respectively. As part of the already recognizable characteristics of a Manufacture movement, the new FC-760 is decorated with Perlage and Côtes de Genève which are visible by through the transparent back case.
This FC-760 complication is inspired by 1930’s Flyback Chronographs and a desire to go beyond a regular chronograph construction. Whereas the regular chronograph function is used as a stopwatch to measure time during a specific elapsed interval, with a Flyback, a user is able to operate the chronograph without resetting it to zero every time. With the flyback, the chronograph’s hand can be stopped, reset to zero, and restarted with one push of a button. This function is essential for timing an elapsed interval of events during races.
An unmistakable characteristic of high-quality chronographs is a column wheel rotating on bearings to control the three “start, stop and reset” functions. In conventional mechanisms, this component has several columns. In contrast, the caliber FC-760 has no standard-type column wheel, but a star-shaped one. Together with the operating lever, which is controlled by the start/stop push-piece, this component is responsible for the smooth operation of the mechanism.
For the new FC-760, Frederique Constant decided to adopt a modular construction. This powerful movement, comprising 233 components (of which only 96 components are dedicated to the Flyback module) with a rotor operating in both directions and a 38-hour power reserve. The ingenious construction of the chronograph mechanism is apparent from the fact that Frederique Constant was able to create it from only 96 parts.
The absolutely essential part in all chronographs is the clutch. Its function is to establish the connection between the power source that is the watch movement, and the gearing, or under-dial work, when required. Symbolic of the ingenuity of the FC-760's designers is a new type of swiveling component with two toothed pinions. When the button is pressed, it connects the two “stories” together. At the lower level, in the watch movement proper, it takes up the rotation of the center seconds and conveys this, via the corresponding upper component, to the actuating mechanism to turn the chronograph hands. At the same time, the lower central seconds also drives the seconds hand at 9 o'clock, which turns continuously in unison. The rotations of the chronograph hand are “recorded” by the 30-minute counter at 3 o'clock.
Repeating pressing of the start/stop push-piece causes slight pivoting of the clutch lever. The chronograph stops. At the same moment a small locking lever ensures that the two stopping hands pause exactly at the last position chosen. If desired, this stop operation can be repeated as often as wished with the upper push-piece. The chronograph will not be reset to zero until the push-piece at 4 o'clock is activated.
Pressing the push-piece just once starts the timer again from zero. In this case, the push-piece at 4 o'clock and its associated mechanism cause three tasks to be performed very quickly one after the other: first, the clutch is disengaged; secondly, the chronograph is reset to zero by means of the single-piece hammer, whose sloping surfaces turn the two zero reset hearts so that the hands position themselves vertically again; and thirdly, the clutch engages once more as soon as the push-piece is released. The highly complex sequence of movements involved in this case proceeds directly from the push-piece to the clutch lever. This instant type of flyback is another instance of the unique details of construction of the new caliber FC-760.
