World Tempus Team Test – Frederique Constant

World Tempus Team Test – Frederique Constant

This week, we are testing the new Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer with the brand’s in-house manufacture movement that is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Let’s see what the team thought during their team test.

Sophie Furley

When I mentioned to a friend that I was testing the Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture this week, he asked me: “Why would you want to test that? You aren’t going anywhere!” Thanking him for reminding me of my unadventurous life right now, I quickly put him in his place, telling him that I have enough international Zoom calls for such a tool to come in extremely handy! And come in handy it has. I have been chatting to people all over the place this week, from the US to Nigeria, China to the UK. What a joy to be able to look down and see the time in all these places at a glance. What I have really enjoyed about the Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture is how easy it is to use. The first position in the crown winds the watch, the second position allows you to set the home city (at 12 o’clock) and the third position allows you to set the time. It is a piece of cake. It is also very legible which is not always the case with a world timer. It also has a day/night indicator (very useful for not calling people in the middle of the night), a date, a quick-change stainless-steel bracelet (plus rubber and nubuck straps) – all for CHF 4,195 – which makes it a winner for me, even with no travel plans!

Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture © GMT Publishing/Sébastien Aubord

Marie de Pimodan

It is half past 12 on the Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer: Time to head out for lunch on the slopes of Gstaad! As I leave The Alpina hotel, my stomach grumbling, I wonder what my friends across the world are up to at this very moment in time. In Dakar, it’s time for a snack. In Tokyo, my childhood friend is probably enjoying ramen for dinner. As for my cousin in New York, he will soon wake up, have a coffee and some toast, and head out to work. If I can’t travel easily, the Worldtimer still offers me the world at a glance. An invitation to dream, this watch with its elegant and legible dial displays the world’s 24 time zones with 24 cities. One small regret, the date disc hides the time in Polynesia, more precisely the Samoa Islands, and I was already trying to imagine myself on the beach! I console myself by appreciating the discreet look and the comfort of this watch which adapts perfectly to my daily program, both sporting and culinary!

Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture © GMT Publishing/Sébastien Aubord

Jordy Bellido

This week, our team test continues the focus on travel watches, much to my pleasure. Twenty-four world cities on your wrist (and the date), that’s what the Frederique Constant Worldtimer offers. This watch would have been very useful during my Christmas holidays in the US to know what time it was back home. As a result, I did a lot of mental calculations before calling my relatives. That being said, what I find great about this watch is its level of complexity. All its functions (time, day/night, date, and cities) are manipulated by one and only one element: the crown. Pull it out one or two notches, turn it clockwise or anticlockwise and you will see how easy it is to adjust its different functions. It is intuitive and only takes a few minutes to understand how it works. Be careful though, if you turn the crown the wrong way, you risk turning the city disc instead of changing the date. And, to get back to your city, you’ll have to do a tour of the planet. Is this really a problem? I don’t think so, it only takes a few seconds, so I think we can say thank you to Frederique Constant for this fantastic watch.

Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture © GMT Publishing/Sébastien Aubord

Brice Lechevalier

When a brand has been born and grown, when the course set at the beginning has been maintained without faltering and improvements have been made along the way, it inevitably benefits from an above-average level of appreciation. This is what has happened with Frederique Constant in the accessible and elegant luxury segment, where the company has already designed more than 30 in-house calibres, equipping Swiss Made models that are often the most affordable on the market. Whether it is a chronograph, tourbillon, or perpetual calendar, or in this world timer category, with the Highlife Manufacture Worldtimer, Frederique Constant timepieces deserve respect. The first glance is more than pleasing to the eye, with its harmonious shapes, its ocean blue dial, and its integrated bracelet. It is easy to read, which is not always the case with this particular complication. The aesthetic decoration (even on the back of the movement with its different decorative motifs) is of note, and it is a fun and comfortable watch to wear too. Finally, its ergonomics and functionality are also reflected in the easy adjustment of all indications through the crown. If the Millenium Watch Book collection ever includes a volume on world timers, this watch would definitely be in it!

Frederique Constant Highlife Worldtimer Manufacture © WorldTempus/Brice Lechevalier

Jean-Christophe Teigner

A world timer watch is an invitation to travel, to remember places previously discovered and to travel to places we dream of visiting. Very soon, hopefully! Destination Dubai, Singapore, Sydney…now boarding. Take Off. Discovery. This watch is really beautifully crafted. A blue dial evokes the depth of the seas of distant lands. A very well-made bracelet fits perfectly on the wrist. The movement is visible under a sapphire crystal with very beautiful decorative patterns. In addition to circular graining, there is also a circular Côtes de Genève motif, reminding us of the watch’s origins, but also of the attention to detail brought by the Manufacture Frederique Constant. This watch is beautiful above and below. North and South Hemisphere! In short, the Frederique Constant World Worldtimer offers you the promise of the world at your fingertips where the infinitely small opens the doors to the infinitely large.

Slimline Ladies Moonphase

Now firmly established as a Frédérique Constant flagship creation, the Slimline Ladies Moonphase range is being completed by two new models. Simple, refined, elegant and affordable, they reflect the wish of the watchmaker to broaden the customer-base for Swiss Made luxury watches.

In 2022, Frédérique Constant is reaffirming its faith in classic and classy watchmaking for women. This is the essence of its Slimline Ladies Moonphase range, whose timepieces of only 30 mm purposefully ooze charm and femininity.

Unapologetic Classicism

After the success of its models with a mother-of-pearl dial and diamond markers, Frédérique Constant is unveiling two new variations which celebrate a return to classic, refined and timeless watchmaking Each model now has a opaline dial with applied stick markers in a pearl black finish. The classic traits of fine Geneva watchmaking are found here, the city in which Frédérique Constant has its own Manufacture.

Slimline Ladies Moonphase © Frederique Constant

At midday, only a “XII” stands out with its Roman numerals, which did not exist on the previous models. Around the dial is a new motion work, punctuated every 5 minutes by Arabic numerals, discreetly completed at 6 o’clock by the “Swiss Made” assurance of true quality. This discreet, so-called “railway” interpretation of the motion work evokes the “sector dials” associated with the glory days of the watchmaking of the 1920s to the 1940s, an aesthetic choice confirmed by the “onion” crown at 3 o’clock - topped by an elegant blue cabochon.

However, these two new Slimline Ladies Moonphase watches also benefit from the progress of contemporary watchmaking: their heart beats with the FC-206 quartz movement, guaranteeing 5 years’ operation. It moves two central hands (hours and minutes) of the leaf type, also pearl black, with a gentle and elegant curve in their centre. At 6 o’clock, they pass over an indication of the phases of the Moon in an open crescent, revealing the Earth’s satellite surrounded by stars, on a midnight blue background, recalling the night sky.

Slimline Ladies Moonphase © Frederique Constant

These two new variations are available either on a blue leather strap, overstitched in the same colour – easy to change thanks to its “quick change” system –, or on an elegant flexible steel strap with 5 polished links, for a snug fit on the wrist.

Even the Best Smart Watch Might Be Bad for Your Brain - The New York Times

My rock bottom was when I caught myself at a nice dinner, transfixed by my phone under the table. I was opening the app for my smart watch, checking whether the numbers it assigned to my “training status” had improved since I finished my run an hour ago. The numbers hadn’t budged, so I closed the app and refreshed it, frowning a little. Was it broken? My companion asked what I was doing. “Nothing,” I lied.

At first, I loved that smart watch, which I used to get faster at racing marathons. Suddenly, I had metrics on things I didn’t even realize my body did: lactate thresholds, VO₂ max, heart rate variability. Each evening I had a full report, telling me what this device thought of my performance.

Soon I couldn’t stop thinking about the numbers on the watch. I was addicted.

At the dawn of the smart watch era, the introduction of the Apple Watch in 2015, Tim Cook pitched the new device as aspirational tech, the next must-have gadget, loaded with apps and features. After a choppy start, smart watches have exploded in popularity in recent years and are expected to reach shipments of 230 million units by 2026. Lately, companies have been marketing these devices less as luxury products and more as essential medical devices, necessities for anyone concerned about health. Amid the pandemic, this pitch seems to be working.

Some brands now have ECG monitors, which let you check for atrial fibrillation, and pulse oximeters, a useful feature during a coronavirus infection, when low blood oxygen can be a useful signal. Others can track your skin’s exposure to the sun. If you fall down in the woods, Apple assures us in some rather alarming advertising, its watch can call for help. And this kind of monitoring isn’t confined to watches: Smart beds that will report via an app on how you slept last night are among an arsenal of health-monitoring home technologies. There are light bulbs in development that will measure your heart rate and body temperature. A breathalyzing product called Lumen invites users to breathe into a tube that it claims can read your metabolism “to see if you have enough energy for your workout or if you should fuel up.”