Frédérique Constant is an independent family-owned and family-run watch brand. Launched in 1988 with just six models, the brand has evolved into a dominant force in affordable luxury watches and now occupies a 3,200 square metre facility in Plan-les-Ouates on the outskirts of Geneva, alongside the likes of Patek Philippe, Piaget and Rolex.
The brand name is an amalgam of the names of the great grand-parents of each owner: Frédérique Schreiner (1881-1969) and Constant Stas (1880-1967). The current managing director, Peter Stas, is a fourth-generation descendant of Constant Stas, who owned a company that printed dials for the watch industry.
As a genuine “manufacture”, Frédérique Constant produces its mechanical watch movements entirely in-house using state-of-the-art CNC machines. Its first-ever in-house calibre, the FC-910, was launched in 2004 and has evolved over the years in two separate series, the “Heart Beat” line, whose signature aperture at 6 o’clock shows off the beating heart of each calibre, and the FC700 series. All of these 15 different calibres are developed, manufactured and assembled in-house at the company’s workshops in Plan-les-Ouates.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of its first manufacture movement in 2014, Frédérique Constant launched two limited-edition Heart Beat models and two limited-edition Slimline Tourbillon models, all fitted with a silicium escapement.
