Interview
Live your Passion with Frederique Constant

dÉrique Constant Genève is above all a traditional brand. With its slogan `Live your Passion', the company aims to attract clients that have a passion to succeed. The work and the humility that lavish on the production is the achievement of a passionate couple that found its destiny in the world of luxury timepieces. Aletta and Peter Stas are the founders of Frederique Constant are still personally involved in the day-to-day operation of the company. Indeed, at the end of the 80's, this young couple was passionate by new technologies, trade an challenges; They were based in Hong Kong for 6 years. Although Peter was very busy with the settlement of a branch for Philips Electronics, he spent all his free time to elaborate a project he has been thinking of since many years : the development of affordable mechanical watches. It is at this time that, with his fiancÉ, Aletta Bax, they decided to start Frederique Constant. Thus, every night, the couple occupied themselves with creation and manufacturing the 6 models of his first collection in co-operation with a Geneva watchmaker called “The 18th Century Collection”; one can imagine the pride of Aletta and Peter Stas contemplating their first dials signed “Frederique Constant”.

eam to reality, meeting with Aletta and Peter Stas :foand Peter, what are the essential qualities of a watch ?

foremost, we consider passion for our watches the driving force behind our company. With passion we design and develop new models that radiate luxury. We pay maximum attention to detail of the design our watches. Most of the Frederique Constant watches are build around intricate mechanical movements, in which we always try to implement a new time measurement function. Attention for detail does not stop with the movement but is as much valid for the other parts of Frederique Constant watches: the cases, dials, hands, crowns, straps, and bracelets. All individual components are finished by our craftsman with extensive experience in the horological industry and who share our passion.
to build luxury watches at reasonable prices ?
e started in 1988, our aim immediately was to create luxurious watches at sensible prices. There were already so many other Swiss brands that, in our opinion, charged exorbitant prices. At Frederique Constant, we have searched for production improvements to be able to keep cost under control. Next to newer production methods, we have also continued to keep our general overhead expenses as low as possible. With a small and efficient team in Geneve, we create, produce and sell our watches. A small team enables fast and direct communication on one side and low cost on the other side. It is this small team at Frederique Constant that passionately works to realize our luxury watches.
have any formal training ?
: I studied law and build a career at an international insurance company before joining Frederique Constant. While in law school and at the insurance company, I gained experience in legal business and operation matters. Peter: I studied business economics and for 8 years was responsible as product-marketing manager in a large electronics company. During these years, I gained substantial know-how on product creation, positioning and production. Frederique Constant started as a hobby project when we created the initial 6 prototype watches. Rather unexpectedly, we were asked to reproduce these watches in quantity by a first customer. Aletta: I resigned first from my insurance post. Peter: thereafter I started to work full time for the company. Our combined formal and practical training is still invaluable today at Frederique Constant.
o you get all your ideas from?
n ideas for new models from intense scrutiny of trends in the market. Here we do not only look at the watch industry, but also for example at the car, travel products and jewellery industries. Next to study of the products in these industries, we also try to learn as much as possible from how companies conduct business. For example, analysis of product cycle management, latest distribution strategies and IT developments, constantly give us new ideas how to improve the operations at Frederique Constant.
create the models yourself ?
dels in the Frederique Constant collection nowadays are created and developed in-house. Sometimes we consult external designers for a specific series of models. Such designers offer from time to time interesting fresh ideas. Ideas from external designers and technical developers are used by the in-house design team to gain insights. Invariably, external designer fail to design complete new watches for the Frederique Constant collection. We always need to adjust such designs to create the final new watches that are a logical fit in the entire collection. Aletta and Peter: Final responsibility for design is in hands of ourselves.
according to you the key of your success ?
ly the single most important success factor is our passion for watches and the development of the company. This drives our ability to create exiting Frederique Constant watches that are beautiful and meet customer requirements. Another major key success factor is a close relationship with our customers. A close relationship with our distributors and retailers is essential to be able to create and produce the right watches for the market. Our distributors and do a tremendous job constantly expanding our worldwide presence and transferring passion for Frederique Constant watches to the final customers that buy our watches.
6;s talk about the collections ?
in Frederique Constant collections currently are `Highlife', `Persuasion' and `Classics'.
e Frederique Constant Highlife™ timepieces are the flagship of our collection, and have a number of distinguishing characteristics. Initially, the unique center link of the Highlife metal bracelet was designed for the Yacht Timer to resemble a winch on a sailing yacht. After strong favorable market response, we selected this bracelet to be the centerpiece of our Highlife collection. The large Arabic numerals were individually shaped to mimic the registered bracelets' center link. Movements either have complications or are ultra flat. The Frederique Constant Highlife™ collection includes a Tourbillon, Heart Beat Perpetual and Heart Beat Day-Date. Mechanical movements are built with very highest quality components, and adhere to all accuracy criteria regulations for gaining official Swiss chronometer certification. 'Haute de Gamme' decorative patterns on the movements can be viewed through the crystal on the backside of most Highlife watches. Our cases follow a smooth rounded design with convex sapphire crystals and water resistance up to 100 meters. Another unique characteristic of the Highlife design is the multiplication of the Frederique Constant crest in a horizontal oval shape in the center of the dial. Our crest is embedded translucently, and lastly, a solid 18K gold crest is applied to the dial. Frederique Constant Highlife™ watches are instantly recognizable.
ion Whereas the Highlife timepieces have Arabic numerals, the watches in the Frederique Constant Persuasion™ Collection have dials with prominent large roman indexes. These unique roman indexes provide a powerful styling element to our Persuasion watches. Following the Highlife design, the Frederique Constant crest is multiplied in an oval shape in the center of the dial, linking the two collections. The Persuasion collection is a direct implementation of the mission of Frederique Constant to create timepieces radiating Geneva luxury, while maintaining a reasonable price. The Frederique Constant Persuasion™ collection is an ideal solution for those individuals who appreciate the quality of Swiss luxury watches, but only wish to purchase at a 'mid-segment' price. These watches are built around automatic movements, as well as quartz calibers with interesting complications. Of particular note the “Business Timer” with its unique week calendar. It is a useful instrument for any professional involved in production or deliveries of products. Cases are made of surgical steel with sapphire crystals and water resistance to 60 meters.
s The Frederique Constant “Classics” consist of some of the longest selling watches in our collection. These timepieces are redesigned every three to four years to include the latest technology, while maintaining their same successful basic design.
e sub collection are the Art Deco collection. Art Deco is the style that swept through the most fashionable circles in the 1920s and 1930s. The name is derived from the title of the Paris exhibition of 1925, the 'Exposition des Arts Decoratifs'. The look was luxurious and opulent, with rounded curves and corners, inside and out, based on geometric metric shapes such as the tonneau. The new Frederique Constant Art Deco Collection is a tribute to this exiting period. The tonneau shaped models are made both with mechanical hand-winding and quartz movements. The Frederique Constant Art Deco models are finished with an ergonomically caseback to fit perfectly on the wrist. Another sub/collection is the
Collection, which is a series of extremely flat models, based on quartz movements with a thickness of just 1.90 mm. Dials are finished with a guilloche pattern produced by a complex engraving procedure. Precision tooling, with tolerances as low as 1/1000 of a millimetre, are developed for each pattern and dial design.
all your range, of which creations are you most proud of ?
tedly, the Frederique Constant Heart Beat™ watches are the most unique in our collection. Particularly, the Heart beat complications; the Heart Beat Day-Date and the Heart Beat Perpetual are watch series we are very proud of. With pride and passion we have also just introduced a new world premiere: the Heart Beat Retrograde. In collaboration with Agenhor of Geneve, Frederique Constant developped a complication both ludic and complex. The second retrograde is located at 6 o'clock, the retrograde hand runs 30 seconds, and returns to zero in 1/100 second. This latest introduction further enhances Frederique Constant's overall Heart Beat image
more about the emblematic model of FC, the Heart Beat ?
ique Constant introduced the first Heart Beat watches in 1994. In such watches, the main-plate is opened at the position of the Balance Wheel, the `Heart' of a mechanical watch. Strategy behind the Frederique Constant heart Beat™ was to create watches where one could see from the front side that it is a mechanical watch. Mechanical watches are more high-end that their quartz counter parts. The Frederique Constant Heart Beat™ for first time was a mechanical watch from which part of its inner works could be seen while the owner wears its watch. These watches gained instant popularity. Unfortunately, we did not register this design and watches have been copied frequently by other manufacturers. That is why Frederique Constant later introduced Heart Beat complications. Such complications are much more difficult to copy due to enormous required investments in the mechanical movements.
ur advertising campaign “Live your passion”, you aim at affirming your identity and modernizing your image ?
rederique Constant introduced its new advertising campaign. The campaign was developed in collaboration with the Add Agency in Geneve that works with various other major watch brands. Such enabled us to learn from many years of experience. Passion, being the core value of Frederique Constant from the very beginning of the company, was chosen for the new slogan `Live your passion. With this slogan, we encourage people to pursue their passion and succeed. The new campaign has increased brand awareness of Frederique Constant and enhanced its image as a brand for and created by passionate people.
ans independence for you ?
the takeovers in the watch industry in previous years, Frederique Constant is one of the remaining independent companies. Being independent has enabled us to react much faster and more flexible thank various brands of the groups. While we are independent however, we do depend on very close relationships with our distribution partners. Together, we realized over 30% growth year-to-date 2002 compared with year-to-date 2001.
ll be the policy of FC in the future ?
we will keep on doing what we do best; to create new Frederique Constant watches with passion. A number of very interesting new developments is being worked on. Further, we continue to our close relationship with distributors and retailers. In next years we aim to increase our worldwide retail network from 850 points-of-sale today to 1500 in 2005.

Constant S.A.
nnex 39
e-Bourg
neve
d
2-860-0440
2-860-0464

FrÉdÉriqu#fconstant

www.frederique-constant.com

Source: Frederique Constant
April 2003