With the Highlife collection, Frederique Constant hit the nail on the head and brilliantly joined the super-competitive luxury sports watch segment. The initial flagship model, the Highlife Perpetual Calendar, has been replaced by the new top-of-the-range Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon, with the much appreciated worldtimer-manufacture-green-watch-hands-on/">WorldTimercomplication extending from the Classiccollection to this one. Despite Frederique Constant offering a three-hander Highlife, the WorldTimerManufacture best sums up the brand’s mission of crafting in-house watchmaking at a fair benchmark price point, even more so within the new luxury sports design.
From Classic WorldTimer Manufacture to Highlife WorldTimer Manufacture
Two years ago, I spent much quality time on the Classic collection, and I was surprised at how much the now-discontinued green option looked and felt. Moving forward, the Swiss brand has stepped up, and this latest release brings the product offering to its full potential so far. Whether you opt for a Frederique Constant WorldTimer Manufacture for its ingenuity or are used to travel across multiple time zones (something we all could hardly do in the last two years), the Frederique Constant Highlife WorldTimer Manufacture is a brand’s statement of pairing accessible luxury without doubling down on quality.
Design is subjective, yet I reckon designers did a great job, and the overall package looks attractive, sleek and clean inside and out. Build quality is virtually flawless, and the bracelet is carefully engineered to the smallest detail, including the quick bracelet swap mechanism with no gap and play against the case’s lugs. Here are the base specs: it is 41 mm wide (crown excluded), lug-to-lug wingspan measures 43 mm, while the case’s thickness is the “pain point” at 12.90 mm.
It looks smaller than expected, thanks to integrated lugs and an extended first bracelet’s link; in contrast, overall weight might be a deal-breaker unless you immediately opt for the replacement strap available as standard. Therefore, you are allowed to swap the steel bracelet on a Frederique Constant Highlife WorldTimer Manufacture and opt for leather or rubber, the latter being the primary choice during the summer break. It’s a pity you won’t swim any easily, given the 50-meter maximum water resistance.
In the benchmark, the Frederique Constant Highlife WorldTimer Manufacture has no direct competitors and overall performs like timepieces costing twice as much in product refinement. Nonetheless, I hope the brand’s engineers will reduce the case’s thickness as they move to the next generation. The WorldTimecomplication takes on the Highlife; hence the signature globe has replaced the map and makes for a far more intuitive and less fancy dial when compared to its Classic sibling.
The WorldTimer complication
It is a valuable complication that gracefully blends into the overall design and gets a modern twist. The mid-centre globe is raised, thus giving depth and enhancing the three-layer displacement. Despite offering the wearer plenty of information, every piece of information is intuitive and first-hand, while performing all the adjustments solely requires the winding crown.
Once secured, it allows the wearer to manually wind the watch. By pulling it out to position one, you can either update the date by turning it clockwise or adjust the city ring the other way round and choose the reference city’s time zone at twelve. Funnily enough, your GMT+1 time zone is Geneva and not Paris. The outermost crown’s position allows to fully adjust the hours and minutes hands and set the day and night indications accordingly; once the reference time zone and time are set, you can access multiple time zones at a glance.
In this position, the second’s hand hacks for you to precisely set the time by using a reference time. My suggestions are the following: the crown deserves better grooves; with the polished mirror finish, you’ll end up quickly and repeatedly slipping your fingers. The in-house calibre is refined enough, looks sturdy and pleasantly finished, offering circular Côtes de Genève on a perlage base and a skeletonized rotor; yet 38 hours of power reserve are less than enough on a watch whose aim is kind of “wear it, forget it”.
Final thoughts
The Frederique Constant Highlife WorldTimer Manufacture is the new bread and butter of the Highlife Collection, and such complication has been widely appreciated by the watch community since it came out; the 3.850 euros sticker price is the cherry on the cake. My only concern is this is not 100-meter water-resistant, and I thought it has to do with the brand looking for a fair price to specs combination and to keep retail under the four thousand threshold. It is my guess, and I hope it won’t affect its success since water tightness is a top priority when buying a luxury sports watch in steel. With that said, and whatever option you’re going for, the Frederique Constant Highlife WorldTimer Manufacture is a terrific watch.
It is a timepiece that displays the 24 time zones of the world's main cities; on premium luxury watches, like those produced by Saxon watchmaker Glashütte Original, it shows all the…
Perpetual Calendar
The perpetual calendar is a complication that adjusts the watch's calendar for varying months and leap years. This cycle will end in 2100, and the wearer should apply the first manual correction.
Complication
The addition of any mechanical complication to a movement that usually displays the time.
Calendar
A feature that shows the day of the month and, in some cases, the day of the week. Some calendar watches show the date on sub-dials, while others display the…
Crown
Placed on the case side, it winds the mainspring. When pulled out, it also sets the time and the date. A screw-down crown increases water resistance and protects the movement…
Case
It encases the mechanical movement and is crafted in one or more parts. It can also be a single piece, as with some professional diving watches, or made of unconventional…
Strap
A leather, rubber or other material band that secures the watch to the wearer's wrist.
Time zone
Time zones refer to the twenty-four regions of the globe. Milan, Rome or Naples will indicate our time zone here in Italy.
GMT
It is the acronym for Greenwich Mean Time and identifies a complication capable of displaying two or more time zones on the dial. The complication usually couples a 24-hour rotating…
Date
It indicates the date of the month. There are different types of display: via a window or a pointer, where an additional hand is usually placed centrally or on a…
Rotor
Part of an automatic watch that winds the mainspring by constantly rotating. Depending on the watch's winding capability, movement design, and value, it comes in various geometries, sizes, and materials.…
Power Reserve
A mechanical watch feature displays, on the dial or the case back, the remaining power in a watch movement, showing the length of time until the timepiece must be rewound.
Calibre
A calibre is the type of watch movement encased in an assigned timepiece. Its name is usually associated with the manufacturer's name and a standard code, e.g., ETA 2824.