Collaborative releases make up an increasing number of the best watches released each year, but that doesn’t make it any less special when a couple of unlikely brands come together to make something unexpected. This is exactly what we’ve got with a new release born from a partnership between Frederique Constant and The Naked Watchmaker (TNW), who have come together to make one of the best affordable perpetual calendar watches in years.
If you’ve not come across The Naked Watchmaker before, it was started by the English watchmaker Peter Speake and Daniela Marin, who were the original names being the independent watchmaking brand, Speake Marin, before the two departed the business. After starting TNW several years ago, they have turned their efforts towards watchmaking education, publishing illuminating deconstruction videos of your favourite timepieces including Rolex, Grand Seiko, Patek Philippe and many more.
You’re more likely to have come across Frederique Constant before, the Swiss brand that creates classically styled timepieces at a more affordable price point. In the collaboration, Peter Speake has applied his decades of independent watchmaking expertise to a Frederique Constant Slimline Perpetual Calendar, creating a complicated, hand-finished timepiece that looks avant-garde but doesn’t arrive with an exorbitant price tag.
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The TNW x Frederique Constant Slimline Perpetual Calendar maintains the original case dimensions of the standard version of the watch, with a steel case that measures 42mm in diameter and 11.3mm thick. Both versions are also powered by the same calibre in the self-winding FC-775 perpetual calendar movement, which ticks away at 28,800vph and has a power reserve of 38 hours.
Where Speake has applied his handiwork is in the attractively skeletonised dial, which offers an uninterrupted view of the blue-bridged movement that contrasts nicely against the tobacco brown of the dial. While the movement is mostly the same as the standard version, Speake has adapted several elements including larger more legible subdials, and a leap year indicator via a small aperture at 12 o’clock instead of the typical hand.
Sure, it’s not the most technically impressive perpetual calendar you can buy, but most finely finished perpetual calendars will set you back at least six figures (a crude comparison could be to Patek Philippe’s most affordable perpetual calendar, the ref. 5320G which costs $133,800). With Speake’s much-celebrated expertise on full display, offering an insight into how the mechanism of a perpetual calendar actually works, the TNW x Frederique Constant Slimline Perpetual Calendar is one of the coolest timepieces I’ve seen in a while that is complicated and affordable.
Limited to just 99 pieces, the TNW x Frederique Constant Slimline Perpetual Calendar has an RRP of CHF 9,995 (AU$15,092), with expected delivery in November of this year.
