For The Modern Rake: Frederique Constant’s Latest Classics Premiere Timepieces

Not all of us are lucky enough to inherit a fine, sophisticated timepiece from our forebears (shocking, I know). Luckily, we have the Geneva-based watchmaker Frederique Constant to correct our progenitors’ abysmal lack of watch game.

For starters, the brand’s nearly religious adherence to traditional watch design and complications, albeit with fully modern movements encased in steel or noble-metal-plated steel, results in many of its wristwatches presenting as perfectly-kept vintage pieces. Then there is the brand’s legendarily accessible price point.

Thus, if you’re a modern gentleman looking for a jaunty yet traditional watch without breaking the bank, then it should come as no surprise that all three of the brand’s new Classics Premiere models will fit that bill (and, maybe, be the beginning of you own family traditions).

With its warm rose gold color and gleaming finish playing particularly well against the cross-hatched guilloche work on the silver-toned central dial and the black applied hour indices, the red gold-plated steel execution is perhaps the most classic of the bunch. Not to mention that the gold enhances the prominent knurled crown, as well.
 

Offered on a croc-patterned black calf leather strap, the core version of this gold-plated ode to classicism (featured here) is limited to 500 pieces and lists for $2,095.
 

Now, to be fair, a black-dialed watch may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think “vintage.” Yet, despite that, the designers at Frederique Constant have perfectly matched contrast and proportion to bring a black execution of the Classics Premier “back” in time.
 

The dimensionality of the central dial guilloche work picks up light wonderfully, so you don’t lose any of that classic detail. Applied indices, gauging, and hand tones shift to a shimmering silver that pops off the noire dial, which also receives a sunray finish outside the guilloche section, so it’s not completely matte black. This soiree-ready execution on steel retails for $1,895, as well.