Frederique Constant is well known as the solid Swiss watchmaker that offers quite a few complications at accessible margins. One of said complications is their World Timer. We covered the original Limited Edition Frederique Constant Worldtimer a couple of years ago in a hands-on review. Now, Frederique Constant is reintroducing the model with a refinished dial in navy blue and updated accents. The new model is well balanced between complication/time-keeping, and, best of all, it continues to offer a lot of value by employing an in-house caliber.
We start with a 42 mm x by 12 mm polished case in stainless steel. While our tastes run to more constrained measures, that diameter is a fine compromise to modern sizing. The new, navy-blue dial shows quite a few updates as well. First and foremost, it's blue. The layering within this dial works rather well. The center showcases a grey anthracite map of the world with luminous applied hour markers. The next ring is the 24-hour ring (blue for traditional dark hours, white for light ones). The third and outermost ring is the city-ring, which aligns with the previous hour-ring in order to show the corresponding time. The city at 12-o'clock marks your home time, that is, the time that hands point to on the main dial. Speaking of hands, the new lance hands work quite well with the world timer configuration. Previously, the Frederique Constant World Timer utilized either poires or Breguet hands, which while classically oriented made the dial even busier than it already is. The new luminous alpha hands not only increase legibility but also simplify the overall balance.
One design aspect that still might be a miss, depending on whether or not you absolutely must have all of your time zones in plain sight, is the date sub dial at 6 o'clock. While it's legibly printed and carved in a sunburst guilloche, it does obstruct a couple time zones. This is easy enough to overcome by just adding 12 hours to the obstructed side of the dial, but watch-folk are a picky bunch.
Around the back, you'll find the automatic manufacture caliber FC -718. This in-house movement, developed in Plan-les-Ouates in Geneva, allows all the timekeeping aspects of the fake watch to be set through the crown. It bears striking similarity to the FC-705 that's found in the Frederique Constant Slimline Moonphase, which probably means a modular complication ?something that at this price point is nothing to fret over. The FC-718 is visible through a sapphire crystal back and boasts a skeletonized rotor, Geneva stripes, perlage and blued screws.
The Frederique Constant Navy Blue World Timer showcases new, lively colors and design characteristics that work well with the worldtime complication. Pricing has yet to be released, but we'd expect it to be similar to its predecessor (roughly $3,500), which, for an in-house complication of the sort, offers quite a bit of value for the dollar.
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