Frederique Constant presents The Art of Porcelain which is a limited edition timepiece with a hand-made porcelain dial crafted by a 150 year old Hungarian porcelain master craftsman.
After the launch of its aggressively priced perpetual calendar model at Baselworld 2016, Frederique Constant has launched another stunning timepiece yet again with a super affordable price tag just over US$2000 and a fascinating porcelain dial. Geneva based brand collaborated with Zsolnay Porcelain Manufacture to design and manufacture the Art of Porcelain’s extra ordinary dial.
Established in 1853, Zsolnay Porcelain Manufacture is located in south-west Hungary and specializes in ceramic products, including porcelain and tiles as well.
Usually vitreous and grand feu enamel are used for watch dials and they are both made of melted glass. However, porcelain is mostly made of kaolin which is a clay type mineral. Besides it’s rarity for being used to create watch dials, there has been some samples from the past employed mostly by Glashütte Original.
Porcelain (which is used to make fine chinaware as well) requires to be baked at very high temperatures in an oven to achieve the desired hardness. The Frédérique Constant Classics Art Of Porcelain dial features a "Fait Main" ( translates hand-made ) writing above the six o’clock position, which refers to the processes used to form and sand the components by hand, to obtain the required shape, thickness, and shine that is essential for a porcelain dial.
Stainless steel and 40 mm in diameter, the case has pretty simple lines featuring fluted sides being the only decorative element. Inside the self-winding FC-302 movement, a base grade caliber. As is seems the movement is outsourced ( Sellita maybe..? ) as Frederique Constant does not mark the movement ‘’in-house’’.
The Art of Porcelain is limited to 188 pieces only.
