Frédérique Constant x Peter Speake Manufacture Slimline Perpetual Calendar automatic nylon strap 42 mm

The genesis

In 2022, Frederique Constant launched a special version of its Slimline perpetual calendar in collaboration with The Naked Watchmaker. This was the first watch collaboration Peter Speake and Daniela Marin worked on after launching The Naked Watchmaker.

For those who don't know, "The Naked Watchmaker" is a web platform that provides knowledge and information to people interested in watches. The blog was founded by British watchmaker Peter Speake and Daniela Marin (behind the Speake-Marin brand in 2002-2012), and is best known for its detailed "deconstructions" of watches and movements as well as its educational "masterclass" series. This first limited edition Naked Watchmaker x Frederique Constant Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, then, presented a "naked" interpretation to better understand the workings of a QP;

About 18 months later, this beautiful friendship is renewed! For the second year, English watchmaker Peter Speake and Geneva-based manufacture Frédérique Constant unveil a new limited series fruit of their collaboration. But this time, it's designed exclusively by British watchmaking legend Peter Speake. And once again, the brand succeeds in making a complicated watch playful.

The model

In practice this is the "basic" FC Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, but "revised and corrected" by Peter Speake! In this version, the English watchmaker has given this model an airy, contemporary design.

The solid surfaces are revealed to reveal the intimacy of the Manufacture movement. All the counters are skeletonized, as are the hands - with luminescent treatment - to hide nothing of the mechanical ballet. As for the seconds hand, it has simply been removed!

As for design, this 42 mm black DLC steel timepiece, water-resistant to 30 meters, offers a minimalist, highly contemporary approach, especially for ultra-classic haute horlogerie functions. Two colors predominate: white and anthracite gray with a matte finish. Their combination creates a perfect contrast. Only a dash of red completes three of the five hands to enhance visibility. Day and date sub-dials at 3 and 9 o'clock are significantly larger than those of the original Slimline perpetual calendar, enhancing both legibility and overall balance. The whole is protected by a domed sapphire crystal.

Technical side

This watch embeds the Manufacture FC-775 self-winding caliber. Beating at a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, it offers a comfortable 38-hour power reserve, but above all a complication worthy of the greatest watchmaking houses! Equipped with a perpetual calendar, this watch indicates lunar cycles as well as minutes, hours, date, day, month and leap year. The date is at 3 o'clock, the day of the week at 9 o'clock, the month at 12 o'clock, and the leap-year indicator is a small round aperture between JA and MR, turning red once every four years. Moon phase at 6 o'clock. Each complication can be easily adjusted using correctors. Once set, this highly sophisticated mechanism will take into account 30- and 31-day months, the 28-day month of February, but also the leap-year cycle and the display of February 29 every four years.

This watch will normally require just one manual correction in 400 years, on March 1, 2100, due to a peculiarity of the Gregorian calendar.

On the finishing side, we find the Frederique Constant "manufacture" signature. The components are individually decorated with drawn lines. The QP wheels feature a circular satin-finish and blued screws indissociable from the Geneva tradition of watchmaking craftsmanship. The open back reveals an openworked oscillating weight characteristic of Manufacture movements. The rotor is coated in blue to echo the blued screws. Finally, the dial-side bridges are finished in grey, contrasting with the steel and gold components visible through the openworked dial. The same grey finish extends to the opposite side of the watch, where engravings detailing the collaboration with Peter Speake and the limited edition of just 35 pieces can also be found.

In a nutshell:

• An ultra-limited edition of 35 watches
• A manufacture movement with the "Perpetual Calendar" complication
• A "playful" skeletonization to better understand the workings of a QP
• A piece made with a genius watchmaker: Peter Speake!