Romaric André, the man behind customization specialist seconde/seconde, modestly states on his website that he destroys other people’s products because he hasn’t been able to build his own.
Rarely has this claim been truer than with a new pair of watches from Frédérique Constant, which appeared to have been left in a state of disarray courtesy of the French artist.
Two limited editions of the Slimline Moonphase Date Manufacture Limited Editions, one in steel (100 pieces), the other in steel with rose gold treatment (10 pieces), have been unveiled, with hour markers seemingly scattered across the dials.
The clutter does not detract from the attractiveness of the watches. Quite the opposite. Seconde/Seconde collaborations are hot right now and the price of £2,995 is a bargain.
Frederique Constant uses the artistic partnership to highlight the fact that all of its watches are made by hand, a message engraved on the back of each watch’s exhibition case.
The watches are a journey of discovery, with little jokes along the way.
At first glance they seem completely normal.
Finely polished three-piece 42mm stainless steel case? Check.
Matt silver dial with moon phase and date complication at 6 o’clock? Check.
The in-house automatic movement FC-705 with perlage finish and gold-colored Frederique Constant rotor? Check.
The underside of the watch is the least subtle reminder that something is different, as on the back of the exhibition case is a message from the manufacturer: “How do we tell the world that manual assembly is written on the lid of our manufacture?” FC poses.
“We asked the artist seconde/seconde. He went too far,” it replies.
On the dial side, Frederique Constant’s usual precision hand assembly is undermined by baton hour markers that are out of alignment.
If you look closely, you’ll see that the usual computer-aided design sharpness of the Frederique Constant Geneve logo has been replaced with a handwritten version.
The same informal approach is taken with the date display centered around a hand-painted moon phase at 6 o’clock.
It reminds me of Iranian carpet weavers who intentionally make small mistakes because only God can deliver perfection.
Both limited editions are available now, priced at £2,995. Notably, this is less than the same model without the Seconde/Second treatment, but I suspect it was vandalized.
