The brand has unveiled its Vintage Rally limited edition watches inspired by the Austin Healey, one of the most beautiful British sports cars in history.

Watch brands have a tendency to partner with car makers, or just to evoke automotive styling in their watch designs. Both watch enthusiasts and car enthusiasts can appreciate good engineering, design and reliability, whether that’s a new watch caliber or a new car motor.

Frederique Constant is a relative newcomer to the industry, having only released its first timepieces in 1992. But it didn’t take long for the brand to also exploit the connection between classic cars and luxury watchmaking.

Twelve years ago, they started a partnership with iconic UK car maker Healey. The latest fruit of that partnership is the Vintage Rally limited edition series, which celebrates the historic rally from Peking to Paris that started over a century ago. The watchmaker seized the opportunity to unveil this exclusive new series to 80 passionate classic car enthusiasts from the French Healey car club.

Inspired by the styling of the classic cars, the news models are presented in a vintage-sized 40mm polished 3-part case, which is either stainless steel or rose gold plated. For a more classic feel, the rose gold case option is definitely the go-to choice here.

The watches also hide many small details that merit a second look. Each of the versions features a colour ring on the dial – a subtle nod to a car’s steering wheel. Completing the dial is the date window at 3 o’clock and the Healey logo at 6 o’clock. The case back is also engraved with a Healey car and the individual number of the watch.

The in-house FC-303 automatic movement powers the Vintage Rally limited edition, which revs at a nice frequency of 28,000VPH. The movement delivers a power reserve of 38-hour, which unfortunately means the watch runs out of gas relatively quickly when it’s not strapped to your wrist.

Speaking of straps, the new watches are secured to the wrist with a fine dark grey leather strap finished with either white or red stitches. The detail adds that bit of extra sporting allure to a finely styled timepiece that brings good value overall.

The Frederique Constant Vintage Rally is limited to 2,888 numbered pieces, and comes nicely packaged in a gift box along with a miniature model of a vintage Healey.