The festivities will highlight the Maison’s expertise, constantly refined over the years without ever turning aside from its original aim: offering luxury Swiss Made watches at a fair price.
Ever since it was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1988, Frederique Constant has chosen not to restrict its watches to a small circle of connoisseurs, but rather to make them available to a much broader swath of enlightened watch-lovers keen to acquire top-of-the-range traditional Swiss watches at reasonable prices. To achieve this goal, the Maison has strictly applied three fundamental values when developing each of its models: styling, quality, and innovation.
From the outset, Frederique Constant has written its own rules – and thereby ended up going where all others feared to tread, blazing a trail with daring, vision, and inventiveness that today enables the Maison to offer a range of models far broader than that of any other watchmaker, including both quartz and mechanical watches and, more notably, a collection of 30 calibers designed, developed and assembled in-house at its Geneva-based Manufacture.
An entrepreneurial couple
Right from its beginnings in 1988, the Maison has taken roads less travelled. It wasn’t set up by a large group; nor did it involve reviving a historic name in Fine Watchmaking that had lain dormant for centuries. Founders Aletta and Peter Stas aren’t Swiss; at the time they didn’t even live in Switzerland. They are in fact Dutch and back then they were living in Hong Kong.
It’s hard to imagine anyone more remote from the traditional three-hundred-year-old watchmaking bastions of Geneva and Switzerland. But as the saying goes, perhaps the fact that nobody told them their enterprise was impossible paved the way for them to actually pull it off.
Affordable Swiss Made luxury
During a trip to Switzerland, the couple saw the potential for a rebirth of Swiss Made mechanical fine watchmaking – at very reasonable prices. Identifying a niche halfway between low-value, very cheap quartz watches and the gradual revival of Fine Watchmaking for the elite was a truly visionary prospect at that time. Aletta and Peter Stas took the view that between these two extremes lay a window of opportunity for affordable, good-quality watches that abided by the historic canons of watchmaking. Frederique Constant was to come to embody that happy medium.
This vision of Swiss Made fine watches being made available for the general public has been unwaveringly upheld ever since. For 35 years now, Frederique Constant has always held to its course, offering ranges that are unrestricted, creative, regularly renewed, and always affordable.
The first collections and the advent of the Heart Beat design
And so it was that in 1992, Frederique Constant’s first collection came into being, with a name that was a deliberate statement of its attachment to watchmaking values: The 18th Century Collection. The pieces in question were elegant, timeless and already featured a first set of complications (notably a Moon Phase). Powered by a mechanical movement, they were released at highly competitive prices. The Maison’s DNA was already perceptible – and is not about to change.
In 1994, Frederique Constant was to be the driving force behind a real breakthrough in the design of the traditional mechanical watch with the creation of its Heart Beat collection. The idea was obvious, so much so that nobody had ever thought of it: moving the movement’s escapement to 12 o’clock and making it visible through a circular opening, thus allowing the watch’s heartbeat to be admired – hence the name. However, the Heart Beat opening was not proprietary; with all the enthusiasm of youth, Frederique Constant neglected to patent the design. Many other brands took advantage of the fact, introducing a whole range of cut-out dials revealing their movements’ escapements.
Nevertheless, the distinctive opening on the dial was to become Frederique Constant’s style signature. The very next year, in 1995, a ladies’ version was unveiled, featuring a heart-shaped cut-out.
Joining the elite
Boosted by this sudden rise to fame and the quality of its output, from 1997 onwards Frederique Constant lost no time in deciding to exhibit at Baselworld, at that time the largest international watchmaking show. In doing so the firm took its place alongside the most prestigious names – humbly, respectfully, but no less determined to pursue its commitment to affordable Swiss Made fine watchmaking.
For the tenth anniversary of its Heart Beat in 2004, Frederique Constant wrote a remarkable new chapter for the timepiece by introducing its first Manufacture caliber, dubbed the FC-910. The hand-wound movement was developed and assembled entirely in-house, becoming the first in a long line of Manufacture calibers. Today, Frederique Constant boasts a catalogue of 30 movements developed in-house, a record in such a short space of time.
A new lease of life and a new manufacture
These Manufacture calibers gradually came to account for a larger proportion of Frederique Constant’s collections, pushing the Maison to increase its industrial capacity with the construction of its own building in Plan-les-Ouates in 2006, followed by an extension in 2019 giving it total space of 6200sqm. In these integrated workshops, Manufacture movements with complications started coming to life: a hand date display, a Moon Phase – and in 2008, the FC-980 caliber, the first tourbillon to feature a silicon escapement.
Many other complications soon followed, not least the renowned FC-718 Worldtimer caliber released in 2012, still a reference in watchmaking due to its simplicity and efficiency; the crown is used to adjust all of its functions. Since the FC-718’s creation 11 years ago, the Classics Worldtimer Manufacture model powered by the movement has become one of the Maison’s bestsellers, with a large number of limited editions sold all over the world.
From ultra-slim to connected watches, all Swiss Made
Frederique Constant pays just as much attention to externals as to movements. The Maison’s first extra-slim range, the Slimline collection, was unveiled in 2013, featuring an uncluttered, almost minimalistic watch with a refined case and two central hands plus a Moon Phase and date display. The line is still one of the most appreciated by men and women alike.
Frederique Constant never intended to confine itself to mechanical watchmaking (or, in some cases quartz), either: in 2015, it plunged into the world of connected watches with an offering that upheld the highest standards of Swiss Made watches, the Horological Smartwatch. This disruptive creation places an elegant watch on the wrist, sporting an analogue dial and a traditional appearance complete with hands – powered by a cutting-edge technology movement developed exclusively for Frederique Constant by MMT (Manufacture Modules Technologies), owned by Peter Stas.
The brand thus remained true to its style whilst at the same time extending its watchmaking into a connected future, backed by a large number of sensors providing data that users can monitor in real time on an application designed especially for this revolutionary watch. Three years later, Frederique Constant unveiled a further innovation in the smart watch segment, its Classic Hybrid Manufacture – the first watch to combine connected features with an automatic winding Manufacture movement.
In pursuit of complications
Having an integrated manufacture has also allowed Frederique Constant to continue its research into mechanical watchmaking. 2016 saw the release of the FC-775 movement, the most affordable Perpetual Calendar on the market. In 2017, the brand scaled new heights with its first Manufacture Flyback chronograph using the FC-760 caliber and its flyback function, the fruit of six years of research: this type of movement is said to be one of the trickiest to design. Highlighting its importance, the launch included a limited edition in a gold case, a habit the brand has maintained to this day for its most iconic releases.
The Monolithic shock
Frederique Constant relaunched its Highlife collection for men in 2020 and in 2021 for women, offering models with an interchangeable, integrated strap for the first time. No tools are required to change the strap at the owner’s whim, in just a few seconds. The Highlife collection’s user-friendliness and modern, sporty chic design has been a huge success, establishing it as one of Frederique Constant’s showcase collections in the space of just two years.
Two more major milestones were achieved in due course. In 2021 came the FC-810 Manufacture caliber, an exceptional movement that upended two hundred years’ worth of received wisdom in the realm of escapements by being made from a single piece of silicon instead of the 26 components usually required to assemble a Swiss anchor escapement – beating at a frequency of 40Hz.
A stately 35th anniversary
On the occasion of its 35th anniversary, Frederique Constant is making its first appearance at Watches and Wonders, the most prestigious international fine watchmaking show, held in its native Geneva. The event marks further recognition for one of the few manufactures to remain true to its founding principles whilst also securing its future and international development; the Maison joined the Japanese watchmaking group Citizen in 2016.
To celebrate the anniversary, the Maison has revisited its Tourbillon Manufacture with unashamedly contemporary styling, slim lines, and a choice of materials to fire the imaginations of lovers of fine watches everywhere. Many other developments will follow in due course, not least the release of a new Manufacture movement in the second half of the year. As it turns 35, Frederique Constant is still a young Manufacture with almost boundless possibilities before it. In addition to its main collections, whose aim remains that of providing painstakingly produced yet affordable watches, the Maison has gradually added more elite timepieces destined for experienced collectors to its ranges. In doing so, Frederique Constant continues to look to the future as it seeks to produce ever more advanced watches, featuring increasingly sophisticated styling and finishes that are constantly being refined and enriched.
Prestigious partnerships
The Frederique Constant universe is expressed through a whole host of partnerships bearing witness to the vitality of its ecosystem and the diversity of the collectors who acquire its watches.
One such example is the close and exceptionally long-lasting ties between the Maison and British carmakers Austin-Healey, first established in 2007 and ongoing ever since. The two brands embody the same passions and values: a love of beautiful engineering, precision, the celebration of timeless designs, the combination of leather and metal, comfort, and above all a certain lifestyle. One outcome of the is the Vintage Rally collection, which draws inspiration from the world of motor racing.
Similarly, Frederique Constant has supported the Riva Historical Society since 2013, celebrating the beauty and graceful lines of the Italian speedboats of the same name. One brand stands for the measurement of time, the other for time spent on the water; both are founded on the same vision of fine workmanship and attention to every detail; both are set to ride the waves of time for centuries to come, forever redolent with the same timeless elegance and suffused with the same passion. The Runabout collection is one embodiment of this collaboration.
Since 2022, Frederique Constant has also been active in the world of electro music, entering into an exclusive partnership with the French producer and talented musician The Avener, now an ambassador for the Highlife collection. Highlife X The Avener marks the convergence of two worlds united by a mission common to watchmakers and musicians: crafting emotions. In their creative output, both sets of professionals strive to find the perfect combination of notes and components and join them together in harmony with the aim of providing others with exceptional experiences.
