Frederique Constant Classic Manufacture Heart Beat automatic blue dial leather strap 39 mm

A limited series of just 35

Created in 1988, the Frederique Constant watchmaking house celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2023. There will be many festive episodes this year, but the Manufacture was keen to close the final chapter of this special year, with a creation emblematic of its journey: its first Manufacture automatic caliber! First presented in 2006, over 15 years ago, its FC-930 Heart Beat movement has since become one of the Maison's flagship developments, and today powers this new Classic Manufacture Heart Beat.

For this special series, Frederique Constant has created an unusual creative journey by making 5 watches, each housed in a 39 case. Each watch features indexes in a different alphabet: Chinese, Korean, Oriental Arabic, Roman numerals and the Indian Devanagari script. Each script is presented on a different colored dial: green, black, white and two variations of blue, each with its own matching bracelet. A special box has been created, and bringing together the five watches, whose indexes use five different alphabets, allows Frédérique Constant to celebrate the universal nature of the art of watchmaking.

An iconic watch

The Classic design embodies the guiding principle that Frederique Constant has always followed since its creation 35 years ago, never deviating from it! This new Classic Manufacture thus honors this watchmaking art in every detail.

Frederique Constant chose to use steel for the case, because whatever the shape, steel possesses precious properties in terms of resistance, making it the ideal choice for five watches ready to travel to five continents. What's more, steel is one of watchmaking's historic materials, simple yet brilliant when polished like a mirror. As such, it brings impeccably finished, precise and sophisticated watches at affordable prices to a wider public. Such has been Frederique Constant's mission for thirty-five years, a promise it continues to keep today as it did yesterday.

To underscore its link with the centuries-old tradition of Swiss haute horlogerie, the model features an onion-shaped crown, a tribute to the pinnacle of watchmaking design of the last century, a tribute also paid by the design of the minute scale, which is inspired by and used in pocket watches and wristwatches from the 1920s to 1940s. The 35-minute index is red in honor of the Maison's thirty-fifth anniversary, representing the only touch of color on the dials of each model on which two hands circulate, both matching the color of the other hour markers.

The founding caliber

The Heart Beat aperture, placed on the dial at six o'clock and showing the movement, appears equally charged with symbolism. The Heart Beat aperture was first introduced in 1994 by Frederique Constant, whose enterprising founders neglected to patent it. Today, although the Heart Beat opening has become the stylistic signature of the Frederique Constant brand, a large part of the Swiss watchmaking industry has been inspired by it, creating imitations of various types. Frederique Constant's creative and technical artistry is undeniable, and this boxed set, which tells the story of time around the world, is a reminder of this.

The Heart Beat in-house caliber was the first to be made by Frederique Constant. Today, the Maison has produced a total of 31 different movements, but this caliber remains the true precursor, a particularly precious piece of the brand's history and opened a new era, to which collectors are still very attached. This caliber was, is today and will be in the future an example of reliability, because it was perfectly designed from the outset and continues to live on with the same Swiss Made precision.

The workings of the Heart Beat Manufacture FC-930 movement can be admired through the caseback. Featuring attractive finishes and Côtes de Genève, it has a 42-hour power reserve. Each timepiece is individually engraved with the words "1 sur 35".