Beating Hearts
Watchmakers used to be the only individuals lucky enough to see what makes mechanical timepieces tick. Sure there were clocks and the occasional decorated pocket watches with engraved bridges that could be admired when one opened the back of a specially made case. But as a rule, prior to the advent of the mechanical renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s, few collectors could readily observe the mysterious source of a wrist-borne timepiece’s characteristic tick.
But in 1994, when Geneva-based watch firm Frédérique Constant punched a big hole in the dial of one of its watches, exposing the rapidly moving balance wheel, the industry had a big “aha” moment.
It had been just a decade earlier that several small brands began to open up their case backs to expose one side of a mechanical movement. When Peter Stas, who with his wife Aletta founded Frédérique Constant in 1988, opened the dial on the brand’s Heart Beat collection, he also opened the floodgates for a host of imitators.
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“The purpose of the Heart Beat development was to show the mechanical nature of our watches,” he notes. “We considered it important to highlight the difference between mechanical and quartz watches visually.”
That open dial, which essentially said “we’re not quartz,” became the brand’s iconic design for many years. However, due to what Stas calls a “beginner’s mistake” the look was not trademarked.
“In 1994, Frédérique Constant as a company was growing fast but was still relatively small,” he says. “Without an internal legal department and sufficient management attention, a beginner’s mistake was made: The Heart Beat feature should have been deposited as a design registration. Possibly, a patent could have been secured.” While watches with open dials began appearing within a year from all corners of the industry, Frédérique Constant has since expanded its identity well beyond the Heart Beat.
Today, with several in-house manufactured calibers (including a tourbillon), a wide-ranging selection of men’s and ladies’ styles and with production of more than 100,000 pieces from its facility in Geneva, the company continues to expand.
“We have been growing consistently, twenty percent to thirty-five percent since the early 1990s,” he noted in a letter this spring. “Even during the 9/11 and Dotcom crises in 2001-2003, our sales continued to grow over twenty-percent annually.”
In the United States, Stas recently appointed Ralph Simons to direct the brand’s new Florida-based distribution office, hiring three sales representatives and re-invigorating the brand’s marketing and publicity. Simons looks to make available both Frédérique Constant and the firm’s sportier sister brand Alpina in about one hundred retail stores this year, though not all stores will necessarily carry both brands.
Manufactured value
The domestic expansion of Frédérique Constant could not have come at a more opportune period, judging by reactions seen at the recent BaselWorld watch fair. There, collectors and retailers searched for “value-oriented” brands and even value-focused individual collections.
“Frédérique Constant has always produced classical timepieces with an excellent price-value ratio,” asserts Stas. “That is why we call ourselves the ‘first choice in accessible luxury.’”
He backs this up by noting his firm offers automatic mechanical pieces that are Swiss made for less than $1,000. What’s more, the company sells several models fitted with one of the firm’s own in-house calibers for less than $2,550.
“Our watches are perfect for the beginning watch enthusiast with a reasonable budget,” he explains. “On the other hand we clearly see that our high-end manufacture pieces up to the tourbillon with our in-house caliber are bought to complete the collections of watch aficionados.”
This year, Frédérique Constant expanded its roster of in house models with the Maxime Manufacture Automatic, a classic-looking piece that features the new Calibre FC-700, made by the firm in Geneva. One version of this new collection can be seen on the cover of this issue.
With expanding, though still naturally limited, movement production in Geneva (the firm made about 5,000 in-house calibers in 2008) Stas hopes to slowly add more proprietary models to the firm’s mix, which still relies on proven calibers from ETA and Sellita.
“We expect sales of our in-house timepieces to grow from 5,000 to 12,000 pieces in coming years,” he adds. “Our latest introduction in Basel, the Maxime Manufacture Automatic, forms a great example of the direction that we want to continue for our top-of-the-line: classical yet contemporary, high-end pieces with a recognizable design and a sensible price ($2,550 for the Maxime pictured on this month’s cover.)’”
That new model’s essentially traditional profile represents the brand’s design philosophy quite well, Stas notes.
“We specialize in classical watches. This is what we liked when we established the brand and what the brand is recognized for. It has always been important for us to keep this consistency,” he says. “In past years, many brands changed to more sporty looking watches. We disagreed and stayed with the classical look.” Stas feels that in today’s economic climate classical watches will be even more important.
Should a consumer desire a sportier edition from the firm, Stas generally directs him or her to the firm’s other brand, Alpina, which is designed for those in search of bolder statements. (However, the Frédérique Constant Healey chronographs, which the firm designs as part of its sponsorship of the Healey Challenges in Le Mans and Heidelberg and Canada, might also meet such criteria.)
Technical flourishes
For those who seek their classic designs with in-house touches, Frédérique Constant offers technical flourishes rarely found elsewhere. Though initially a window to the soul of an ETA caliber movement (and, eventually, several complications made with the assistance of Dubois-Dépraz and Agenhor Genève), the firm’s Heart Beat models received the premiere in-house addition in 2004 with FC-910, the company’s first manufactured movement. In that original manual-wind caliber, the company underscored its focus on the mechanical nature of its watches by moving the large balance wheel closer to the dial to make it all the more visible to the wearer. With the assistance of horology schools and Geneva-based engineers, the firm developed that caliber with its balance wheel bridge up front rather than in back, as was the tradition. This allowed the firm to then move the wheel itself and the fine regulation toward the dial side–a new design that the company was, this time, sure to register. The FC-910 was followed by in-house designs made with a moonphase and date and in 2006 by the firm’s first automatic edition, which added an extra-large and gold-plated rotor for unusually efficient winding power. Despite its larger size, the rotor featured a large opening to allow a clear view of the caliber beneath the clear sapphire caseback.
When Frédérique Constant began to include silicon escapements in a small number of Heart Beat manufactured movements in 2007, it trumped itself the following year when the silicon escape wheel also appeared in the firm’s premier in-house tourbillon, which the company (and its CNC machine in Geneva) has produced since last year. Each of the 188 limited-edition tourbillon red gold models and 88 white gold models is individually numbered, and priced at about $50,000.
Newest models
In addition to the above-noted models and its varied ongoing collections, which include a wide range of collections for men and women, Frédérique Constant this year includes a collection that celebrates a new collaboration with the Helice Classique, an annual boating event held on Lake Geneva honoring classic Runabout yachts of the 1920s.
The partner here, as with the classic Healey automobiles, reflects Frédérique Constant’s own ideas regarding contemporary yet classic design. To complement the highly polished wood and metal found on Runabout boats, the watch firm polishes the 43 mm steel or rose gold-plated case, its chronograph pushers, its crown, the hands and the dial markers.
What’s more, on the watch’s back the firm has engraved a propeller to recall those on Runabouts, and has created a new sort of heartbeat, namely a hole that opens to the blue-screwed movement. It’s basically a case “porthole” to recall the maritime theme. The automatic model comes in a special gift box along with a miniature wooden model of a Runabout.
For women, Frédérique Constant this year offers true love with a new Heart Beat model called Love Heart Beat. The watch is essentially a new version of the company’s successful Ladies Automatic Heart Beat series, which offers color, diamonds and automatic movements. This year, the dial features a diamond-scripted “love” which actually hugs the “heart beat” aperture that exposes the movement’s inner workings.
The firm has set diamonds into the scripted “love” and offers diamond-encrusted bezels on the 34 mm steel or rose gold plate watches. Dials are available in chocolate, vanilla or opaline with mother-of-pearl.
Frédérique Constant’s own heart is visible as it donates 50 Swiss francs for each Heart Beat watch it sells directly to the International Children’s Heart Foundation, which is a medical charity dedicated to providing free pediatric cardiac surgery to needy children throughout the world.
Dr. William M. Novick, who in 2007 was co-winner of Frédérique Constant’s Passion Awards, created the foundation. That award, in which the firm (with advertising that features the slogan “Live Your Passion”) celebrates an entrepreneurial spirit from any profession and publicizes their work during a ceremony in Geneva, is currently underway and in the nomination period. The next Passion Award is slated for 2010.
This year, however, is a busy one for the firm. In addition to its reorganization and expansion in the United States, race fans can check out its sponsorship with the Healey Challenge this month in Kingston, Ontario, and will be very visible at the next Runabout boating event later this year.
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