The Low-Down

Frédérique Constant is aptly named, it’s remained a dependable constant in the lucrative mid-price watch market since the brand was founded in 1988. You can always expect something new, both for men and women, and 2022 is no exception. These new offerings are available in time for Valentine’s and are packed with sufficient charisma and eye appeal to force a reluctant credit card from the steely grip of your purse or wallet.

Highlife Ladies Quartz

The Highlife collection was one of the first to be presented by Frédérique Constant in 1999. The emphasis for this new collection is in reintroducing the collection to make it more relevant to 21st century women. Key to the new look are diamonds. They adorn the dials, bezels, cases and even the bracelet. Why? Because times change but a love of diamonds never loses its luster.

For a fast change of mood, each 31mm watch includes Frédérique Constant’s integrated and interchangeable bracelet, designed to seamlessly merge with the case. The invisible integrated system makes a change of bracelet and mood easy without the need for tools. An extra white strap is supplied with each watch.

The new Highlife Quartz collection includes:

With icy blue sunray finishing on the dial, this watch is accented by silver and diamond indexes.

A warmer option in brushed and polished yellow gold-plated stainless steel. This piece reveals a silver dial with white luminous treatment at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock dotted with 8 gold-plated and diamonds indexes.

This version presents an entirely rose gold-plated version with the bezel set with 60 diamonds and with additional diamonds studding the mother-of-pearl dial.

The fourth piece is in classic silver. It features a mother-of-pearl dial with no less than 60 diamonds placed on the bezel. It comes on a brushed and polished stainless steel 3-link bracelet.

Highlife Ladies Quartz Diamond

This top-of-the-line new addition to the Highlife Quartz Collection is so new it hasn’t even made it to the Frédérique Constant website. Unfortunately, all concern for mid-price penny pinching has gone to the wall, or should that be wallet. It’s a tour de force of diamonds with 148 diamonds on the stainless steel bracelet, 112 diamonds on the case and bezel, and lavishly accented diamond markers. It’s for those who demand the finer things in life and the price reflects this admirably. If the lady in your life has her heart set on this glittering beauty, she is not going to be swayed by your hopeless lament that it’s a lot of money to pay for quartz.

Each of the Highlife Quartz watches run on an FC-240 quartz movement with 60 months of battery life.

Limited Edition Classic Worldtimer Manufacture Swiss Edition

Strictly limited to just 108 pieces, this 42mm worldtimer is one for collectors. It’s intended for frequent travelers and decorated with the Swiss cross, referencing the Swiss time zone. Frédérique Constant maintains this Worldtimer is deemed a winner for three key reasons.

1) It features a useful complication. One that permanently displays world time. The watch displays a miniature world map indicating the 24 world time zones and their 24 principal cities. For ease of reading, the 12 daytime hours appear in red, while the 12 night-time hours appear in grey.

2) It’s easy to use. The complication can be adjusted quickly and intuitively, without risk of error. All the features of the Classic Worldtimer Manufacture are adjustable by just using the crown, (hours, minutes, date, Worldtimer) thereby eliminating the need for push buttons.

3) It runs on a Manufacture movement. The FC-718 movement, with a 42-hour power reserve, has been decorated with fine perlage decoration and blued screws visible through a sapphire crystal caseback.

IMHO

Did you know Frédérique Constant, despite being snapped up by Japanese giant Citizen in 2016, is essentially a family business still run by husband-and-wife team Peter Stas and Alletta Bax? The company gets its name from the great grandparents of each partner, Frédérique Schreiner and Constant Stas. When the brand was founded in 1988 the idea was new: luxury watches at affordable prices. From the start the founding partners have been involved in every single stage of watch production from design to assembly. Allowing luxury watches to be affordable to more people may not have been popular with competitors, but it has proven to be extremely popular with customers.

Along the way Frédérique Constant has introduced some notable firsts punching well above its weight. These include the heartbeat movement, a tourbillon with a silicon escapement, a worldtimer operable with just the crown, and the introduction of horological smartwatches.

Some watch snobs will complain FC is not a fully-fledged Swiss brand, after all, the original owners are Dutch and the new owners are Japanese, but they are definitely Swiss made as they do manufacture their watches in Plaines les Ouates in Switzerland and as things stand the design of most of their watch collections remain faithful to Swiss watchmaking aesthetics.

Tech Specs

Highlife Ladies Quartz

Reference: FC-240LND2NH6B

Size: 31mm
Movement: FC-240 Quartz
Dial: Light blue dial with sunray finishing, Applied silver color indexes with white luminous treatment at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock, 8 silver color and diamonds indexes
Water Resistance: 5 ATM
Strap: Brushed and polished stainless steel 3-link bracelet
Price: USD 1,595.00

Highlife Ladies Quartz

Reference: FC-240VD2NH5B

Size: 31mm
Movement: FC-240 Quartz
Dial: Silver color dial with sunray finishing, Applied yellow gold-plated indexes with white luminous treatment at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock, 8 gold-plated and diamonds indexes (0.04 carat)
Water Resistance: 5 ATM
Strap: Brushed and polished yellow gold-plated stainless steel 3-link
Price: USD 1,995.00

Highlife Ladies Quartz

Reference: FC-240MPWD2NHD6B

Size: 31mm
Movement: FC-240 Quartz
Dial: White mother-of-pearl, Applied silver colored indexes with white luminous treatment at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock, 8 silver colored and diamonds indexes (0.04 carat)
Water Resistance: 5 ATM
Strap: Brushed and polished stainless steel 3-link bracelet
Price: USD 3,695.00

Highlife Ladies Quartz

Reference: FC-240MPWD2NHD2B

Size: 31mm
Movement: FC-240 Quartz
Dial: White mother-of-pearl dial, Applied rose gold-plated indexes with white luminous treatment at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock, 8 rose gold-plated and diamonds indexes (0.04 carat)
Water Resistance: 5 ATM
Strap: Brushed and polished stainless steel and rose gold-plated 3-link
Price: USD 4,195.00

Highlife Ladies Quartz Diamond

Reference: FC-240MPWD2NHPV6B

Size: 31mm
Movement: FC-240 Quartz
Dial: White mother of pearl dialApplied silver color indexes with white luminous treatment at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock, 8 silver color and diamonds indexes (0.04 carat)
Water Resistance: 5 ATM
Strap: Brushed and polished stainless steel 3-link bracelet set with 148 diamonds (0.518 carat)
Price: USD 16,500.00

Classic Worldtimer Manufacture Swiss Special

Reference: FC-718CHWM4H6

Size: 42mm
Movement: FC-718 Manufacture caliber
Power reserve: 38 hours
Dial: White color dial with grey world map in the center, Silver color applied indexes filled with white luminous treatment and black markers24H disc with day (red) & night (blue) indication, White city disc with 24 cities printed in black and red, Date counter at 6 o’clock with hand-polished red hand, dates in black and red and guilloché decoration in the center
Water Resistance: 5 ATM
Strap: Navy blue alligator leather strap with off-white stitching plus an additional white alligator leather strap with white stitching
Price: USD 4,295.00

Availability: www.frederiqueconstant.com