Frederique Constant Celebrates 35th Anniversary With Two New Highlife Worldtimers

Established in 1988 by Dutch entrepreneur Aletta Stas-Bax and her husband, Peter Stas, timepiece maker Frederique Constant is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. To commemorate this milestone, the brand has unveiled two Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture watches: one is in 18-carat rose gold (Ref. FC-718BL4NH9) that is limited to 35 pieces and the other is a non-limited variant in stainless steel (Ref. FC-718C4NH6). Both Frederique Constant Worldtimer variations feature 41 mm cases. 

The luxury timepiece maker introduced the Worldtimer in 2012 and since then, it has been a key part of Classics and Highlife collections. The second generation of the Frederique Constant Worldtimer was released in 2021, with a more modern touch and a new tonneau-shaped case. The latest Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer gets half-moon facets at either end, decorated with vertical-brushed finishings and a brightly polished bezel and a crown for contrast.

Whether the wearer opts for the petroleum blue dial meant for the rose gold variant or the chocolate brown dial meant for the stainless steel model, both feature engraved longitude and latitude lines suggesting the shape of a globe. The cities corresponding to the 24 time zones are transcribed in white on the outer confines of the dial with GMT -1 and +1 in red, followed by a two-tone, 24-hour day-and-night track intercepted by a pointer date disc at 6 o’clock. 

In the rose gold model, the dial features luminous, gold-coloured appliqué hour markers matching the three central hands, indicating hours, minutes and seconds. The applied indices are treated with luminescence, as are the sword-shaped hour and minute hands; the central seconds hand is polished by hand.

Powering both the Frederique Constant Worldtimer watches is the in-house Calibre FC-718 with 38 hours of power reserve. All complications can be adjusted using the three-notch crown system: Position A is for winding the watch, Position B sets the date (going upwards) and the reference city (going downwards), and, finally, Position C sets the time on the central display. Turning the watches over reveals the sapphire casebacks, each with four visible screws and a gold-coloured openworked oscillating weight, which is decorated with circular Geneva stripes, perlage and four visible screws.

The rose gold model comes with a blue nubuck-finished alligator strap and is supplied with an extra blue rubber strap. The stainless steel variant is finished on a chocolate brown alligator leather strap and a rubber strap. Irrespective what case material the wearer chooses, both the models come with a 100m water resistance.

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