To mark thirty-five years of Frederique Constant and fifteen years of its in-house tourbillon movement the brand has launched a limited edition version of the Classic Tourbillon in a 39mm sized platinum case with a meteorite dial.

Limited to thirty-five pieces, the meteorite sourced for the dial is from Gibeon in Namibia. You may recognise the type of pattern – Widmanstätten patterns (aka Thomson structures) are found in the octahedrite iron meteorites (the most common class of iron meteorites) and some pallasites (a class of stony–iron meteorite) and consist of fine interleaving of kamacite (an alloy of iron and nickel found on earth only in meteorites) and taenite (an alloy of iron and nickel found mosty in iron meteorites) bands, between which are often a mix of kamacite and taenite called plessite can be found. The use of this material means that each dial in this edition is unlike the others.

To match this particular meteorite choice, the automatic Calibre FC 980 has a ruthenium finish. Beating at 28,800 VPH with a power reserve of 38 hours, its rotor is brass with a tungsten section around the rim. The tungsten was chosen to provide greater inertia when in motion and the rotor is also coated with ruthenium. All the engraving on the movement, from the limitation number (on the cage of the one-minute tourbillon) to the case back is rhodium-plated. All the movement finishing, which includes bevelling and block (diamond) polishing the screws, is by hand.

Coming on a black Alligator strap with a folding buckle, the new Frederique Constant Classic Tourbillon Meteorite Manufacture has an RRP of EUR 42,995.

[Photo credit: Frederique Constant]

Categories: Frederique Constant, Watch Profile, watches, Women's watches

Tags: tourbillon