New collection of smartwatches from Frédérique Constant
The Frédérique Constant Horological Smartwatch made its debut in 2015 after a development period of three years, making it the first Swiss ‘smart watch’. Since then Japanese watch giant Citizen has taken over the watch house that was established and made into a success by Peter and Aletta Stas and some things have changed; on the inside mostly, not so much the outside appearances. Frédérique Constant still looks and feels the same and that also applies to sister brand Alpina.
However, on the inside of the latest series of smartwatches there have definitely been some changes. Those who think the latest generation of smart models now has Japanese technology will be disappointed. The collection was partly realised in conjunction with Manufacture Modules Technologies (MMT), a Swiss company that was established in 2015 and is a stone’s throw away from the ‘FC’ manufacture in Plan-les-Ouates. The company develops and commercialises modules for smartwatches, firmware and apps; innovative technology made to fit in the traditional haute horlogerie universe. One of the founders of MMT is … Peter Stas. MMT was not taken over by Citizen and will therefore continue to operate independently and sell the products it develops to other brands in addition to ‘FC’ and Alpina.
Ten new models
The five new smart women’s models and the five fully revised men’s watches have been fitted with an MMT module. The recognisable subdial of the first Horological Smartwatch is absent in the new models. The attention now focuses on the markers at 2, 4, 8 and 10 o’clock. New functionalities like incoming phone calls, sleep monitoring, a step counter and text notifications are shown on the outside of the dial. The new women’s model is a melting pot of traditional watch values and modern technology. Guilloche dials, mother-of-pearl accents, embossed Roman numerals, white diamonds and a sleep cycle alarm go hand-inhand. The 34mm case has been fitted with the MMT-281 quartz module, which guarantees more than two years of battery life.
Smartwatch 2.0

