Hodinkee
Introducing: Frederique Constant Highlife Moonphase Date And Classics Moneta Handwinding
What We Know At Geneva Watch Days this year, Frederique Constant introduces two new references that continue to build on the momentum the brand generated at Watches and Wonders. The Highlife Moonphase Date adds a moonphase complication to the Highlife collection; the Classics Moneta Handwinding is the first mechanical movement in a collection that launched in 2024 with a quartz movement and added a solar version earlier this year. Together, the two references display the range of what the manufacture builds in-house, from a complicated moonphase module to a hand-wound caliber developed exclusively for the brand. The Highlife Moonphase Date measures 39mm and comes in two dial colors. The rosé champagne dial uses a sunray finish that radiates outward from the moonphase window at 6 o'clock rather than from the center, with gold and copper tones set against a blue moon disc. The night blue dial uses a lighter sunray finish closer in tone to its own moon disc, with a red "31" marking the final day of longer months. The moon disc is rendered with grey shading and surface relief rather than a flat metallic disc. Both versions use applied, mirror-polished, lume-filled indexes and hands. By comparison, the Classics Moneta Handwinding measures 38.5mm and comes in a single dial color: a smoked salmon-tone gradient that darkens to black at the edges, with applied mirror-polished hour markers, two dauphine hands, and a small seconds sub-dial at 6 o'clock. The Highlife Moonphase Date...