Frederique Constant has spent 2025 in a sweet spot. The brand celebrated its 37th anniversary with a fresh slate of designs, a renewed push on complications, and the kind of playful risk-taking we don’t always see from the Geneva maison. Dubai Watch Week arrived at the perfect moment: FC turned up with a trio of very different stories—a revamped Moneta, a materials-driven Bamford collaboration, and sexiest of all, an ultra-collectible five-watch manufacture set—each one showing a different facet of the brand’s confidence right now.

Here’s the full breakdown, watch by watch.

Classics Moneta Moonphase (2025 Edition)

Frederique Constant’s smallest, most quietly subversive collection gets a new twist this year. The Moneta already had personality — that faux-bezel fluting hidden under the sapphire crystal is still one of the neatest design flips FC has done — but the latest version leans deeper into contrast. A fully gilded 37 mm case frames a pitch-black varnished dial, with the moonphase at six o’clock glowing softly against the darkness.

The look stays intentionally pared back. Vintage-style dauphine hands, no seconds hand, and a quartz movement with 60 months of battery life mean the Moneta isn’t trying to be busy or loud. It’s a gentle, slightly eccentric daily watch. The strap keeps that mood going — calfskin disguised as alligator, soft and light, making the whole package feel elegant without sliding into pastiche.

Highlife Chronograph Automatic Bamford Special

This is Frederique Constant at its most rebellious. George Bamford’s first collaboration with the brand takes the Highlife Chronograph and pushes it into darker, sharper territory. The case alone is a statement: made from “crystal titanium,” it’s heated to 1,200°C and cooled slowly to create a textured, mineral-like surface unique to each watch. Add black DLC coating and a matte-black dial with turquoise highlights, and the piece feels like a stealth machine built with Bamford’s fingerprints all over it.

Despite the visual overhaul, FC keeps the mechanics rooted in tradition. The FC-391 automatic chronograph movement (sourced from La Joux-Perret) sits under a smoked sapphire caseback, giving the watch a very Swiss backbone beneath the British irreverence. Each watch ships with three straps — black rubber, turquoise rubber, and black nubuck — and the Highlife’s one-click system makes swapping them addictive. Only 100 will be made, and it’s easily one of the brand’s most unexpected releases of the year.

The Elements Collection (Five-Watch Manufacture Set)

For its 37th anniversary, Frederique Constant unveiled a collector-grade box set that sums up its modern identity: inventive complications, beautiful materials, and an eye for accessibility even in the high-end space. Limited to just 37 sets, The Elements Collection is the brand’s first fully vintage-themed “manufacture movement” ensemble — five watches, each linked through mineral dials or mineral-inspired aesthetics. Some models in the set will have wider production later. Others will exist only inside these 37 sets. Here’s the full breakdown:

Classic Moonphase Date Manufacture

This is the calmest and most poetic of the five. A turquoise dial — streaked naturally with dark mineral fibres — makes the moonphase at six o’clock pop beautifully. The layout is minimal: dauphine hands, applied markers, and a clean date-moonphase display. Power comes from the new FC-716 calibre with a 72-hour reserve. The first pieces appear in the Elements set, with the remainder of the 716-piece total run arriving at retail in 2026.

Classic Worldtimer Manufacture

One of the brand’s biggest success stories returns with a deep blue lapis lazuli dial. The Worldtimer complication has always been one of FC’s most intuitive layouts, and the natural patterning of the stone gives this edition a more luxurious, almost celestial feel.

Classic Perpetual Calendar Manufacture

This is where the collection begins to feel genuinely collectible. FC’s perpetual calendar — famous for being one of the most accessible Swiss P.C.s on the market—is rendered here with a heliotrope dial, a stone rarely seen in watchmaking. The colours shift with flecks of green, red, black, and pale mineral fibres, making every dial unique.

Classic Tourbillon Manufacture

A dramatic black onyx dial gives the tourbillon all the stage it needs. FC keeps the case at a classic 39 mm, letting the open tourbillon at six o’clock become the star. The mirror-like dial and clean steel case give the watch a modern minimalism that feels worlds apart from the brand’s usual vintage-leaning pieces.

Highlife Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar Manufacture

The only non-Classic in the collection, and the only non-mineral dial, this Highlife combines two of FC’s most prestigious complications into an openworked 41 mm piece. The FC-975 calibre sits at the centre of the architecture, with the tourbillon at six and the perpetual calendar indications woven into the movement itself. Like the previous two watches, this reference exists only within the 37-set release, making it one of FC’s most limited high-complication pieces to date.