The Frederique Constant WorldTimer has been around since 2012, and it is now available in several dial variants, all with the same in-house movement. This latter characteristic makes this world time watch an attractive proposition, especially when considering the price. The version presented in March 2017 has a sort of hygge look with its rose-gold-plated case€, hands and world map, a reddish-brown sunray-brushed dial, and brown leather strap.
Case and dial
The case is in rose-gold-plated stainless steel, 42 mm in diameter and 12 mm thick, and the way that the case is entirely polished gives it a sort of stocky bulk. Even though it’s not excessively thick, it looks anything but slim. Water resistance is better than usual at 5 atm.
The dial has a decorative world map at the centre, with the hour markers around it. Then comes the 24-hour ring with its day and night sectors, and lastly the city ring that can be rotated from the crown in order to set the time zone of the time shown by the hands. Once this is done, the time in any city can be seen at a glance, along with whether it’s day or night. A pleasant feature of this watch is that all settings are made using the crown, which eliminates the pusher that is usually used for changing the time-zone.
The only problem I have with the dial is the subdial for the date, which obscures the reading of the time in five zones, and totally hides one time zone. The Frederique Constant engineers decided to use an existing in-house movement that already had the date and added a module for the worldtimer function.
Self-winding in-house movement
The movement is the self-winding FC-718 calibre, made in-house, visible through the sapphire caseback. It is based on the FC-700, has 26 jewels and runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour, 4 Hertz, 42 hours power reserve. The open-worked oscillating weight enables a better view of the balance and the circular Côtes de Genève.
Attractive price
The best thing about the Frederique Constant Manufacture WorldTimer is its price. At €3,795 it’s a good-looking watch with a rare complication that costs far less than the classic versions by Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. The reference of this model is FC-718BRWM4H4. If you prefer truth to materials, there are versions in stainless steel with bracelet or leather strap at €3,195. Further information from the Frederique Constant website.
