The Frederique Constant Highlife Ladies Automatic with lavender dial

The Big Picture: Frederique Constant Colors in the Lines with New Highlife Ladies Automatics

Colorful (and sparkly) new releases from the Geneva-based brand look to the future by looking back at their spiritual ancestors.

By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large

There’s a lot happening in the current watch news cycle. There are multiple new launches every day, as well as a steady stream of announcements about CEO changes and corporate buyouts. It’s easy to get caught up in the new watch alerts and forget to step back and look at the bigger picture.

While admiring Frederique Constant’s latest launches from the Highlife Ladies Automatic collection, we thought it would be fun to compare them to some of the brand’s earlier 2024 releases. You know, to provide context.

We also photographed them against some colorful backgrounds to illustrate how any Highlife can easily shapeshift to suit your mood.

Pop Goes the World

Every piece in the sporty-chic Highlife Ladies Automatic line shares a strong family resemblance, with the signature of this series being an engraved globe on the surface of the dial. The two “Sparkling” models are the only Highlife Ladies Automatics that do not have this engraving.
 

Yet, despite having a remarkably consistent design, Frederique Constant is forever finding new ways to prove this collection’s versatility. For example, depending on your tastes, you can customize the look of a Highlife Ladies Automatic simply by swapping the original stainless-steel bracelet for a rubber strap. Easy peasy, presto change-o!
 

Moreover, this past summer, the brand introduced a Highlife Ladies Automatic that featured a deep royal purple dial and dazzling diamond markers (the Ref. FC-303PD2NH6B). The positive reaction to this piece has inspired Frederique Constant to further explore the themes of light and color with two new dial colors for the fall: calming lavender and vibrant tangerine.
 

All three glammed-up models feature a three-part, 34mm stainless-steel case and come with a metal-matching bracelet and an additional white rubber strap.

Since color is a refraction of light, the dials of these new models shimmer when their diamond markers sparkle. Plus, the hands and applied hour markers are coated with luminescent material, so you could even say these watches literally glow.
 

Re: Sizing

It’s always easier to push the boundaries of a watch’s look when you are starting out with a strong infrastructure. That is why these glimmering Highlife Ladies Automatics also got us reflecting on another recent FC favorite: the Highlife Chronograph Automatic from this past June.
 

When we wrote about it at the time, we noted its sober classicism and evocative colorways; however, we were remiss not to stress that, whether gendered masculine or feminine, the Highlife’s modern silhouette provides a flexible canvas for experimentation.

For example, the rounded lugs and pushers and the curvy case of the 41mm Highlife Chronograph Automatic lend it a softer profile that is easily adapted to the 34mm Highlife Ladies Automatics (sans the chrono features, of course).
 

On the other hand, the visual impact of the use of color in the Ladies Automatics line compares well with the graphic boldness of the Highlife Chrono’s panda and reverse panda configurations.

Fun and Functional

What is even more important (at least to us), when “feminizing” the model, Frederique Constant didn’t simply shrink and pink. In fact, there’s no reason that a fellow who prefers a smaller watch with a lot of wrist presence wouldn’t wear this watch.
 

Plus, all three of the Highlife Ladies Automatic are powered by the automatic FC-303 movement featuring a 38-hour power reserve and a rotor with a diamond engraved collimaçon (or spiral) decoration that is visible via a see-through sapphire caseback.
 

Finally, all three versions are available now and priced at $2,095. For more information, check out the Frederique Constant website.

(Photography by Watchonista)

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