Frederique Constant Adds Burgundy to Its 100-Piece Perpetual Calendar

Hodinkee describes a sunray-finished burgundy dial that moves from deep wine tones to brighter reflections. The counters carry a Côtes de Genève pattern, which is a decorative cue that matters here because the subdials are doing most of the calendar work.

The layout reported by Hodinkee is straightforward:

• Day at 9 o’clock
• Date at 3 o’clock
• Month and leap year at 12 o’clock
• Moonphase at 6 o’clock, set against a midnight-blue background with laser-engraved stars

Around that, the report lists a chemin de fer minute track, applied faceted hour markers, polished hands and a fluted onion crown. None of those details makes the watch easier to identify than a reference number would, but they are still useful record notes when comparing photos, invoices and later service documentation.

The case is reported as polished stainless steel, measuring 40 mm by 12.25 mm. Hodinkee also lists an anti-reflective convex sapphire crystal and a 50-meter water-resistance rating.

That rating should be recorded as a rating, not as a promise about any individual watch after wear, storage or service. For a new release, it is part of the published specification as reported; for any actual watch in a collection, present water resistance would need case-specific testing by a qualified watchmaker or service center.

The engraved caseback is also a useful divider between the public limited-edition fact and private ownership records. “Limited to 100 pieces,” as reported by Hodinkee, is a production statement. A photographed or documented individual number would belong in a private collector record, not in a public article unless already published by a source with reason to show it.

Hodinkee frames the model line through its earlier coverage, saying a previous edition had been described on the site as a “premiere affordable mechanical perpetual calendar.” That is Hodinkee’s assessment, not a Crown Quorum valuation, and the report does not include a price against which to test the word “affordable.”

Still, the point of the comparison is clear enough: the conversation around this watch is less about a new complication and more about how Frederique Constant packages a perpetual calendar in a familiar case size, now with a colored dial and a 100-piece edition structure.

That does not make collector demand measurable from this report alone. The report includes no completed sales, allocation details or public owner responses. What it does show is the way a dial color can refresh a complication-heavy design while also giving record keepers a few concrete fields to capture: movement designation as reported, case material, dimensions, dial description, edition size and the presence of an individual edition number on the back.

Before this watch is entered into a long-term collection record, several fields remain worth checking against primary documents: the exact reference number, the maker’s full specification, the retail price and market, the terms of any warranty document, and how the edition number is printed or engraved.

Those are not minor bookkeeping details. A warranty card records a sale, not a production date. A calibre name identifies a movement design, not an individual watch. And an edition number can help describe a limited release without standing in for the identifiers that a maker, retailer or service department may use later.