For the third time, and to meet the demands of collectors, Frederique Constant is enriching its Flyback Chronograph Manufacture collection with two new variants. This collection, designed for the most discerning connaisseurs, has been entirely developed, crafted and assembled at the company's Geneva-based Manufacture. It is one of the collections most appreciated by chronograph enthusiasts, as much for its special characteristics as for the difficulties that have to be overcome in its creation. The 'flyback' function, or in French 'retour en vol', was one of the first functions added to the chronograph during the 1930s. The principle is simple: it allows the chronograph to be stopped, reset and started by a single press on a pusher instead of three successive presses. This ingenious idea, which makes it possible in particular to measure the time of successive races during sporting events, poses at least one major mechanical challenge: whereas in the past, stopping, resetting and restarting the chronograph were functions distributed over two pushpieces operated in succession, the flyback mode allows them to take place simultaneously and to be combined with a single press on a single pushpiece. The traditional flyback mechanism is based on several column wheels that serve to engage and disengage the chronograph. The FC-760 calibre that drives the Flyback Chronograph Manufacture does not have this complexity: the wheel is no longer columnar, but star-shaped. Fewer components, fewer operations, a reduced height: Frederique Constant's FC-760 calibre is simpler, more reliable and smoother. Pressing the pusher at 4 o'clock disengages the movement from the chronograph and resets it to zero. Once the pusher is released, the movement and chronograph engage again, and the latter can start again. It took no less than six years of development to achieve such levels of technical sophistication. The aesthetics of the FC-760 calibre have also been improved, a quality that this new collection allows one to appreciate through the sapphire glass back. The flyback module is composed of only 96 components (out of a total of 233 for the entire movement), a number that makes it one of the most efficient flyback modules in the world, but also one of the most affordable due to its ingenious and patented construction. In fact, the new Flyback Chronograph Manufacture is offered starting at €3,895 (for the steel version; the one with a rose gold-plated case costs €4,195). Today, two out of four models in the collection are already sold out. To meet the demands of collectors, Frederique Constant today unveils two new proposals. Their common point: two-tone aesthetics with silvered counters. This is the first time that this model features the counters in a contrasting colour to the dial. The first version sports the three counters on a chocolate-coloured dial, for a 42 mm rose gold-plated case. The second, on a blue dial with a steel case. Modern and dynamic, these new Flyback Chronograph Manufacture watches are equipped with bâton hour markers and luminescent hands, as well as an alligator bracelet with a folding clasp engraved with the Frederique Constant coat of arms.
