Affordable Watches That Look Expensive

You know I'm constantly asked, "I don't want to spend $150,000 on a watch, $200,000, $250,000, $500,000." And yeah, there are a lot of watches in that price range, but that's not how you start collecting. You've got to find a brand that makes dials at an affordable price, entry level. So that was one of my objectives in coming to Watches & Wonders this year: find great brands, great dials, great entry-level prices. I'm talking about sub $5,000, so you don't have to borrow money to buy a watch. Something maybe $2,000 or $3,000. And that's what this brand is all about.

These are called the quasi-independents, but this is not so small, Frederique Constant. And I've got the CEO over here, Nels, and let's talk to him about the vision of this company and some of the pieces that they sell.

"Alwayspon heart bills, nice to meet you, nice! Nice to meet you, Kevin. Yes, let's talk about the vision for this brand. What do you do? Well, why are you here? What makes you tick, so to speak?"

"So, uh, I think the strength of the brand is the price point and the finishing of the product. So we have beautifully finished products that start already at 1,000, okay? So that's like $1,200 or even just $1,000 US. But you do this, and you manufacture as well?"

"Yeah, so we go in-house. And now I'm going to be very polished in the way I'm saying it: the young, innovative watch manufacturer from Geneva. So we are 35 years young this year, 36. We do in-house manufactured movements—31 movements this year. We introduced two new movements, and we do that fully in-house, but we do that at a very accessible price point. And we are accessible—sub 10,000 francs, right under 10,000, starting at €3,000 manufacture basis."

"Okay, and you sell all around the world?"

"We sell globally, yes."

"Okay, so that's what I really wanted: something that we could see here that was very easy to attain. So, let's look at it, Nels. What do you got that's great for us? Start us at the lowest price point and move us up to the highest."

"Okay, so interesting. Yeah, here I have for you a 37 mm quartz model. Beautiful. This starts at €1,100. €1,100 for a quartz watch—very accurate, beautiful dial. It's very slim; the size is really going smaller nowadays. Yeah, I see that. Trends from 39 to 40, 39, and then it goes to 37 standard steel. Yeah, you have a coined dial ring that really brings extra closeness to the watch, applied indexes with a moon face. So very—it's a lot of value for the price."

"If I want a different color dial, are these the same models with blue?"

"Yeah, that's actually beautiful. You know what I like about this? Man or woman, it doesn't matter. Actually, we need more women—more women are buying."

"Yes, more women are buying."

"All right, step it up a notch. Where do we go next, then?"

"Let's show some lady models. Ah, so here you have three models. These are quartz or mechanic? Quartz. This starts at $895 US—under $1,000. Absolutely spectacular! That's beautiful! Bracelet variations, yes. You can see here Christ Point 100 EUR more, so just below $1,000 US still. That's great. It's a great discovery, mate. And then, of course, also here, two rings set with diamonds. Those then pretty to above $3,000—$3,500 US. But it's also fully set with diamonds; those are real."

"Yeah, sure, very nice. So, $3,000 for a PVD classic women’s watch, quartz? Absolut. Then we're going to bring you now a level up. So these are—this is the movement."

"Le?"

"Yeah, it's an internal movement; it's a mechanical automatic. I—that's a mechanical automatic 682—68-hour power reserve. Yeah, it's a very sophisticated finishing of the case, glass box almost on the back to see, to really display the movement. And this is around $2,000."

"That is fantastic! This is a discovery! These are beautiful pieces. You're doing—you're designing your own dials?"

"Yeah, we design our own dial. We don't produce our own dial."

"No, I understand, but we did the design all in-house. And, but look at this. So this is what we are using. So we don’t have—we used to have gold-plated in manufacture that I’m showing you later. We stopped with gold-plated; it's only precious materials: gold, white gold, platinum, and stainless steel. But in the regular automatics, quartz, we still use plated."

"Yes, this is 10 Micron yellow gold plated, right? This watch here is, you're able to give a gold watch at a very affordable price around $2,200 US? Fully automatic mechanical piece, beautiful classic design dial there. We still have one piece with a bright blue?"

"Yeah, I like that a lot. This is steel, right?"

"Yeah, so now I'm going to show you my child because that's the manufacture. So we do already since 2004, our own movement. Yeah, forced by the power and the violence of the big groups who are dictating on the movements, right? We wanted to be independent. We want to have unlimited road potential, but also design. We wanted to really have our own. You need manufacturing capacity, then you need."

"Yeah, yeah, but you can only do your own design if you do your own movement. Right? It's all the same. So this one, this year we're launching two new calibers in the entry price of manufacture, starting price, €3,300. Okay, for that price, you get the three hands version with a point of date, 140 mm case, 72-hour power reserve, five years warranty."

"Oh, go! Yeah, I mean, you guys are killing it on price point. That's fantastic! They're a real F—that's been shown. So that's the entry entry-price money factory. That's the first entry that you have to our money caliber."

"One level up, we now have—take a GRE one— the same caliber, but then with a moon face. We call that the FFC 716, yes caliber, 72-hour power reserve, five years warranty, 40 mm case, and it has a moon face, a three-hands version. It's beautiful. And the price, again, €3,895. So it's shy below $4,000."

"Fantastic! You saw entry level as long as just over $1,000, and now we're going to go up to the top echelon of this brand because it's got such a great spread. You can come in at under $2,000 and go all the way to $20,025 with very grand complications. Let's have a look at those."

"All right, what do we have here? This is an integrated bracelet diesel. This is by far the most iconic movement we have: World Timer, introduced in 2012. A world timer that you manufacture yourself—100% ourselves."

"Yeah, that's really impressive. Where did you find the watchmakers to do that? Cause this is the highest form of their art."

"I know it's very difficult today to find watchmakers, but we had already for a long time, 25 years ago, we had a watchmaker that really mastered the whole manufacture collection from the beginning. But world timers are the top echelon of watchmaking."

"Sure, carry $4,300 US dollars. That's incredible! I don't know, four and a half, but don't get me on a few hundred bucks. But so around $5,000 for a world time—four and a half, I would say. We have that also in a blue version that you can see here, but blue is now fit perfectly within the collections of every brand in a way. So world timers are $5,000 classic brown and a blue—beautiful."

"I see now. Then I'm going to give you another nice one. Yeah, this is the pépeto cender, fully designed in-house, manufactured in-house, our own W—$9,000. Leard, yeah. So this is up to your highest price point, right?"

"I'm very happy to have you here."

"Yeah, no kidding. I don't often give accolades, but this is really what I love about this. These are spectacular pieces at really affordable prices. This is a fantastic niche frame."

"Yeah, and you manufacture them yourself?"

"Yeah, because I thought the story was going to be you get the springs and you get the ceris or somebody else, you buy stuff from China, and you slap it in a case."

"No, are people doing that? Sure, sure, but the movement—I'm not saying about the bracelet and the case, because that we source well."

"I understand that, but your manufacturing?"

"Yes, yeah. Well, see if we can get you some sales. This is really, really impressive. It's good."

"So, two variations in color, and then I'm going to show you still something very unique. But you know the old classic—"

"But wait, there's more! There's more! Is that a tourbillon?"

"That's a tourbillon, yeah."

"What price is a tourbillon? You got $15,000? Incredible! So we have a gold; that's slightly more expensive—$25,000. Yeah, stainless steel starts with $15,000, 39 mm case, fully in-house manufactured movement, clean design of the dial, beau blue strap. Incredible. So nice package, high value."

"Yeah, for—I don't say it's an accessible price for a tourbillon, but you have an option here. The gold is amazing."

"That's a rose gold?"

"Yep, beautiful. So we've seen everything."

"Yes! All right, this is really, really impressive. So the great thing about this, you can buy it at retail, you can go online and get it, but it's very affordable at any level. Wherever you go, you write to the top of the tourbillon or start back at $1,000 on the sports watch. This is what I call accessible."

"Thank you so much."

"Thank you."