Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. Frederique Constant – The History of the Brand with President Peter Stas
The evolution of a brand created only 30 years ago and recognized today as a key player in the "accessible luxury" segment.
Today on MONOCHROME we start a series of videos focusing on accessible luxury brand, Frederique Constant. Created only 30 years ago by Peter and Aletta Stas, the brand has gained international recognition for manufacturing elegant watches with interesting complications and luxurious appeal for reasonable prices. Frederique Constant is also now an established manufacture, capable of producing its own in-house movements in its recently enlarged Geneva-based manufacture, ranging from classic automatic watches, to the signature open-heart pieces or the ultra-complex but still accessible tourbillon perpetual calendar.
To start this series, we will talk to founder and president of Frederique Constant, Mr Peter Stas, about the history of the brand and how his wife and he managed, in such short time, to create an influential Geneva-based brand.
A short history of Frederique Constant
Frederique Constant is a relatively new Swiss luxury watch manufacture and was founded in 1988 by Dutch entrepreneur Peter Stas and Aletta Stas-Bax. Their mission was to produce in-house Swiss mechanical watches at accessible prices, not restricting them to wealthy connoisseurs. The brand’s first watches launched in 1992, a collection of six models with outsourced Swiss movements. Just two years later in 1994, the Heart Beat model launched as one of the brand’s signature models. The balance wheel was displayed via an opening in the dial, a popular aesthetic now copied throughout the industry. In 2004, the Heart Beat calibre FC 910 launched as the first in-house movement, establishing the company as a vertically integrated manufacture. Within three decades, the brand enjoyed rapid expansion with no less than 15 in-house movements (including a tourbillon, a perpetual calendar and moon phase complications), and even acquired Alpina Watches in 2002. Frederique Constant is now a subsidiary of Citizen Watch Company after being acquired in 2016, along with Alpina and DeMonaco.
To learn more about this brand that allows enthusiasts to enjoy elegant watches with interesting complications and in-house movements, check out our video at the top of this article as Peter Stas explains how everything started.
More details at frederiqueconstant.com.
5 responses
FC has been making some really interesting dress casual watches in the last couple years. Keep up the good work and consider expanding your lineup to include more sports casual watches. The brand name is becoming more and more recognizable. They are being sold in our local airport, attracting lots of eyes to their displays.
Great video. I definitely appreciate the efforts you’ve put forth lately in this area. Keep up the good work!
@funkright – thanks for the nice words 🙂
I have a lot of goodwill towards FC and have considered purchasing one several times. The one continuous aspect of their output which has stopped me is CASE SIZE. This needs to be dealt with.
I enjoyed the article. I hope there will be more of them :-). Thank you for your work.