40mm stainless steel case, in-house manufacture movement with moon-phase function, blue sunray dial, blue leather alligator strap.

NOW WITH A NEW DESIGN AND A NEW MOVEMENT

Frederique Constant’s flagship Classic Moonphase Date Manufacture is restrained, elegant and contemporary, staying true to its traditional DNA even as the collection expands to include a new 40-millimetre variations endowed with the new Classic steel case.

Designed for everyday wear – and for all lovers of Geneva’s watchmaking heritage – the timepiece features a new, uncluttered sunburst dial, sporting delicate hands powered by a new FC-716 movement. Developed in-house, the latter boasts a 72-hour power reserve.

The Classic Moonphase Date Manufacture is so reliable that its performance is now guaranteed for five years. This rare, refined, sophisticated and accurate piece is highly reliable, based on a 4hz movement originally developed by Frederique Constant almost ten years ago now.

A 72-HOUR POWER RESERVE

The new model come with both a style makeover and more significantly, new technical features made possible by their new FC-716 Manufacture calibre. This has been fitted with a brand-new barrel providing a three-day power reserve – 72 hours in all. The high-precision movement beats at a rate of 4Hz. This carefully thought-out decision by the Maison means the watch is better able to withstand day-to-day challenges, returning swiftly to regular oscillations after any disturbance. The FC-716 calibre is itself derived from a technical base that has been used to power the Manufacture’s collections since 2015, the FC-715, and uses over 90% of the same components, making it exceptionally well tried and tested – and highly reliable.

‘THE DAUGHTER OF ASTRONOMY’

It’s been said that ‘watchmaking is the daughter of astronomy’, and this piece, housed in a 40-millimetre case, is perfect illustrations of that assertion: both those foundations of horology are evident on this minimalistic dial. The watchmaking aspect is embodied by the three redesigned steel-coloured central hands; the hours and minutes hands are now diamond-cut, as are the hour markers.

As to astronomy, at six o’clock a single window brings together two complications in one display, the moon-phase and the date. The two are closely interrelated: the moon completes one cycle of phases across its star-studded background in precisely 29.5 days.

SWEET AND POETIC ASTRAL HARMONY

The date is indicated by a central hand that travels around a peripheral scale graduated from 1 to 31. Amid this starry firmament, the shorter time marked out for each passing day and the longer moon phases thus dwell side by side in sweet and poetic astral harmony.