Frederique Constant

Peter Stas and Aletta Bax, a Dutch couple, founded Frederique Constant in 1988 with a straightforward objective: make Swiss watches with genuine watchmaking content at prices well below where that content normally starts. The name combines those of two ancestors, Frédérique Schreiner and Constant Stas, the latter a manufacturer of watch dials from the 1900s.

The company designed its own movement, the FC-910 Heart Beat, in 1994 — an aperture cut into the dial to expose the balance wheel, which became the brand's signature and is now widely copied. It began manufacturing calibres in-house in 2004, an unusual step at its price point, and has since produced over thirty in-house movements including perpetual calendars, tourbillons, and a monolithic silicon oscillator replacing the traditional escapement entirely.

That last development, the Slimline Monolithic of 2021, was a serious technical achievement: a single silicon component oscillating at 40 Hz, delivering high-frequency regulation without lubrication.

Frederique Constant also produced one of the first Swiss-made connected watches, the Horological Smartwatch, with analogue hands and hidden activity tracking.

The company built a manufacture in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva, shares it with Alpina, and was acquired by Citizen in 2016. It also owns the vintage-focused Ateliers deMonaco.

Frederique Constant holds 21 models, from £520 to £3,995. Half cost less than £1,295, and a quarter less than £995. 13 of 21 are automatic. 7 are stocked by more than one retailer, giving 28 offers in total. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1988

Peter Stas and Aletta Bax found the company.

1994

The Heart Beat dial aperture becomes the house signature.

2004

In-house movement manufacturing begins.

2016

Acquired by Citizen.

2021

The Slimline Monolithic introduces a silicon oscillator.