The Classics Carrée Automatic collection takes us back to its original era, the roaring 1920s, which unveiled a stylistic audacity whose influence is still perceptible today. Extremely refined, these rose gold-plated or stainless steel timepieces exhibit a minimalist style with baton indexes, dauphine hands, and date. The dial with its subtle guilloché motif lends the Classics Carrée Automatic a rare elegance for collectors with a discerning eye for aesthetics.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Classics Carrée line, launched in 2003, thus seized the potential of its unique format, bringing the shape to life as the line evolved: with the introduction of an XL model and the celebrated ‘Heart Beat’ escapement aperture for which Frédérique Constant is renowned.
Today the Classics Carrée Automatic has been further refined, and significantly so. The first major change: the Heart Beat aperture has now been closed, once again concealing the well-kept secret of the timepiece’s Swiss Made mechanism. The face of a new sleeker dial is revealed. The large Roman numerals give way to applied indexes, with a double index at 12 o’clock. This timeless style is much closer to the aesthetic canons of the 1920s.
Yet at 6 o’clock, a discreet additional complication recalls the necessities of everyday life. This new date aperture echoes the rectangular line of the case. It is surrounded with a frame in the same finish as the case, which is also echoed by the indexes.
The centre of the dial concentrates the most refined finishes. This rectangle, mirroring the proportions of the 30.4 mm x 33.3 mm case, is surrounded by a ‘railroad’ type dial-train typical of the 1920s and the Art Deco movement that flourished during that period. It is decorated with very fine grooves, visible only to the eye of its owner.
This subtlety provides a better contrast to the interplay of the three hands. The hour and minute hands are fashioned in the dauphine style, a silhouette also characteristic of the last century. This simple, refined shape allows time to be read accurately in all situations due to two facets oriented at two different angles, such that one of them always catches the light. Everything is regulated at 3 o‘clock via an onion crown, as was found on almost all watches up to the middle of the last century.
About Frédérique Constant
Frédérique Constant is a Swiss watch manufacture based in Geneva. The company was founded in 1988 by an independent entrepreneur couple, Aletta and Peter Stas, in order to offer quality Swiss watches at affordable prices and make Swiss Made luxury watchmaking more accessible.
Frédérique Constant designs, develops, assembles, and tests a wide variety of timepieces — mechanical watches, quartz watches, and smartwatches — at its 6,200-m2 manufacture in Plan-les-Ouates (GE). To date, Frédérique Constant has designed 30 manufacture calibres, including haute complications such as the Tourbillon, Perpetual Calendar, Flyback Chronograph, and a revolutionary escapement that is unprecedented in watchmaking: the Monolithic. Made from a single piece of silicon — replacing the 26 components of a standard assortment — it oscillates at a frequency of 40 Hz, ten times faster than most mechanical movements.
In 2015, Frédérique Constant launched the Horological Smartwatch, the first Swiss Made smartwatch with a traditional look. The Classic Hybrid Manufacture followed in 2018, combining a mechanical manufacture movement with smart capabilities. The Vitality Smartwatch line was introduced in 2020, equipped with an advanced integrated heart rate sensor. That same year, Frédérique Constant revived its Highlife collection, with a redesigned case and an integrated interchangeable strap. This was followed in 2021 by the Slimline Monolithic Manufacture, with its very high-frequency monobloc escapement, and later the Highlife collection for women.
Frédérique Constant currently has nearly 3,000 sales outlets in 120 countries around the world. In 2016, the Frédérique Constant Group (Frédérique Constant, Alpina Watches, Ateliers deMonaco) joined the Japanese Citizen Group to pursue its international development and nurture new collaborations.
