FC-930: a global journey in five Limited Editions
FC-930, five limited edition versions to celebrate times and cultures from around the world, collected in a special box set.
To close the celebrations of its 35th anniversary, Frederique Constant has created an unusual creative journey by bringing together 5 watches, each housed in a 39 millimeter case and presented in a special box of which only ten examples will be made for the whole world. Each watch in the box has indices in a different alphabet: Chinese, Korean, Eastern Arabic, Roman numerals and the Indian Devanagari script. Each writing is presented on a different colored dial: green, black, white and two variations of blue, each with its own matching strap. Each version is expressed in a different language, but they all show the same button, the Heart Beat Manufacture FC-930 caliber, symbol of the Frederique constant manufacture.
The initiative to create a multicultural box set is rare for the watchmaking world and has a strong humanistic and cosmopolitan content. The box set, which brings together five watches with indices using five different alphabets, allows Frederique Constant to celebrate the universal nature of the art of watchmaking. This also highlights the international dimension of a company that only 35 years ago was a small independent atelier and which today is one of the main manufacturers in Geneva.
A symbolic selection
The same 39mm case is used for each model as a conscious choice, as the 39mm diameter is highly prized by collectors reluctant to embrace much larger or smaller pieces and is also a diameter suitable for both women and men, emphasizing the universal nature of the precious contents of the presentation box.
Frederique Constant decided to use steel for the case, because whatever the shape, steel boasts valuable properties in terms of resistance, making it the perfect choice for five watches ready to travel across all five continents. Furthermore, steel is one of the historic materials of watchmaking, simple and yet brilliant when polished to a mirror. As such, it enables impeccably finished, precise and sophisticated watches to be made available to a wider audience at affordable prices. This has been Frederique Constant's mission for thirty-five years, a promise that it continues to keep today as it did then.
The Swiss Made tradition
To underline its link to the centuries-old tradition of Swiss fine watchmaking, the model features an onion-shaped crown, a tribute to the heyday of watchmaking design in the last century, an homage which is also achieved with the design of the minute scale which is inspired by and used in pocket and wrist watches from the 1920s to the 1940s. The 35-minute index is red in honor of the Maison's thirty-fifth anniversary, which represents the only touch of color on the dials of each model on which two hands flow, both matching the color of the other hour indexes.
The functioning of the Heart Beat Manufacture FC-930 movement can be admired through the caseback. Featuring pearlescent finishes and Côtes de Genève, it boasts a 38-hour power reserve. Each timepiece is individually engraved with "1 of 35" and presented alongside its counterparts in luxurious packaging designed specifically for this special edition and crafted from walnut wood. A drawer, created under the clock panel, reveals descriptions of the history of the alphabet used for each clock's index series.
Only ten of these exclusive sets will be produced and made available through Frederique Constant stores and renowned network partners: Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons in Dubai (UAE), The Hour Glass (Singapore), Oriental (Hong Kong), Frederique Constant stores in Seoul (Korea) and Qatar (UAE), Union Suiza in Barcelona (Spain), Grimoldi in Milan (Italy), Polo Luxury (Nigeria) and the Frederique Constant store in New York (USA) as well as through our online store.
The founding caliber
The Heart Beat in-house caliber was the first to be made by Frederique Constant. The Maison has now produced a total of 31 different movements, but this caliber remains the true forerunner, 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 for the future an example of reliability, since it was designed perfectly from the beginning and continues to live on with the same Swiss Made precision.
Open to the world
The Heart Beat aperture, positioned on the dial at six o'clock and showing the movement, appears equally full of symbolism. The hear beat opening was first introduced in 1994 by Frederique Constant, whose entrepreneurial founders neglected to patent it. Today, although the Heart Beat opening has become the stylistic signature of the Frederique Constant brand, a wide swath of the Swiss watch industry has been inspired by creating imitations of different types. The creative and technical artistry of Frederique Constant is undeniable and this box set, which tells the narrative of time around the world, serves to remember it.
