Category Archives: Replica Watches

Swiss watches are always popular with the public. The brilliant copy watches are carried with excellent movements which are manufactured in Switzerland.

Frédérique Constant Three decisive years for the group

Posted on by

— The Frédérique Constant group has for the past two years been involved in some major technical projects, all of which are due for completion in 2017 – and may well yield some unexpected results!


This was to be another fairly classic interview with Peter Stas, of the kind he has been giving since the late 20th century and in which he keeps us up to date on the double-digit growth of his Frédérique Constant and Alpina brands. At least that was the plan.

In practice, during this friendly meeting, the CEO was asked a traditional news-related question: with Apple on the verge of giving its annual keynote address that same day on September 9th and thus unveiling its projects that are now out in the open, it was pretty natural to enquire about his stance on smart Replica Watches UK, while expecting to get a pretty straightforward reply along the lines that this market is still pretty far removed from his horological core business. Instead, Peter Stas casually dropped a bombshell: “I’m already spending more than 50% of my time on this”.

A new production centre to be built two years from now

This is indeed big news: the Frédérique Constant group, headed by its CEO, is actively working on developments in the field of connected Swiss Rolex Replica watches. While R&D secrecy means not much more can be divulged at this stage, this response certainly sheds new light on the transformations that the group is currently undergoing.

It was in fact just the day before, on September 8th, that the group announced it had obtained planning permission for the extension of its production centre. “Extension” is an understatement, since no less than 3,000 square metres will be added, thereby virtually doubling the current 3,200 sq.m. surface area. This huge facility in Plan-les-Ouates will be physically linked by various walkways to each floor of the current building.

The current surface area of the Manufacture Frédérique Constantin will be virtually doubled within two to three years.
© Frédérique Constant
A new operating board

Meanwhile, Peter Stas has taken the opportunity during 2013 and 2014 to reach the goal he had long since set for himself: namely of stepping back from the operational side of the Manufacture. This approach was already apparent in the appointment of Guido Benedini as CEO of Alpina on March 1st 2013, and further confirmed this year when Frédérique Constant got a whole new board. The latter’s mission is to handle the day-to-day activities of the brand, with its estimated 135,000-unit output for 2014 – and potentially to double that figure over the long term, the underlying goal that Peter Stas takes little pains to conceal.

The Manufacture naturally has its ups and downs, like any other business. Peter Stas readily admits to having been “caught out” by the drop in the Hong Kong market: “We were certainly not expecting to see a -45% downturn, but the local market is still buoyant enough for us to maintain our presence there”. Especially since the Frédérique Constant group as a whole is doing extremely well: +26% growth (in value) for the first half of 2014 compared with 2013. A prosperous firm that gives its CEO the peace of mind required to focus on his plans for the future.

Peter Stas, CEO of the Frédérique Constant group.
© Frédérique Constant

Ceramics and smartwatches

These projects thus clearly include connected watches: “The future of the market is definitely in Switzerland, provided we believe in it and that we don’t make the same mistakes as during the quartz crisis”, says Peter Stas, before proceeding to expand on his vision of smartwatches: “A connected watch must not be a mere replica of a smartphone. It is pointless to try and transfer the same functions from one to the other. I can’t see a Fake Rolex Watches receiving alerts nor a consumer talking to it on his wrist. The future lies elsewhere and will be based on apps and added value”. In which domains might that be? While the CEO salutes Apple’s initiative in the area of biological functions and sports, he resists the famous app stores business model: “For a smartwatch to be first and foremost perceived as a watch, it has to have the latter’s essential attributes: namely being a piece of jewellery, and a durable one at that. A Omega Replica watch is the exact opposite of a gadget, and must remain so if we want to establish ourselves on this market”.

In parallel, Peter Stas evokes the ceramic future of Frédérique Constant: “We were one of the first to implement silicon in our regulating organ, from 2008 onwards”, he reminds us, as if to set the record straight. “We are currently investing a good deal in ceramics, and in particular in a ceramic lever. We have reached the sixth-generation prototype stage and it is functional. This involves considerable R&D efforts in conjunction with a partner, and we will be testing it to ensure its viability during 2015 and 2016 – the goal being to introduce a limited series in 2017”. So the word is out: it will be definitely well worth keeping a very close eye on Frédérique Constant over the next couple of years.

In 2008, Frédérique Constant became one of the first brands to use a silicon escapement. The brand is currently working on a ceramic lever.
© Frédérique Constant

Centredoc, “keeping Replica Watches UK” for 50 years

Posted on by

Centredoc is housed inside the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM) in Neuchâtel

A specialist in patent searches and technology monitoring, Centredoc started out in 1964 as a scientific and technical documentation centre for the Rolex Replica watchmaking industry, an activity still in demand although half its clients now come from other sectors.

Claude Laesser struggled to keep a straight face as he introduced himself to his audience, but this patents expert stood firm and, with the utmost seriousness, revealed Centredoc’s extraordinary discovery. Holding aloft a fascicule as proof, he described what could be the first Celtic patent, for the invention and manufacturing of iron! This highly entertaining presentation rounded off Centredoc’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations, last June: a fun way for the patent search and technology monitoring institute to bridge the gap between the second Iron Age and today’s information society.

A journey through time

This anniversary was indeed a chance to travel back in time. In 1963, in response to the growing number of technical and scientific publications, the Laboratoire Suisse de Recherches Horlogères (LSRH) and Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) resolved to create a documentation centre that would be a “one-stop shop” for bibliographic research, translation, and the introduction of a general inventory and standardised classification and selection system. On March 17th 1964, a constituent assembly officialised the creation of the Centre de Documentation de l’Industrie Horlogère Suisse.

This new institution came about within a unique context of cooperation between the different players in the branch. In the early 1920s, the Swiss Replica Watches industry had been hard-hit by the economic crisis that followed the First World War. So as to avoid the massive increases in import duty that came in the wake of widespread protectionist measures, certain Swiss industrialists came up with the idea of exporting Omega Replica watches not as finished products but as unassembled parts, a technique known as chablonnage. The Swiss Federal Council took a dim view of this new strategy; its concern was that Swiss manufacturers were unwittingly providing foreign competitors with technology they could use to flood the market with their own products. In 1922 the Council therefore proposed a subsidy, on condition that the Breitling Replica watch sector underwent major restructuring. This led to the emergence, between the two world wars, of the Statut Horloger, a form of cartel that would remain in place until 1971.

Welcoming new challenges

Forced into greater cooperation, between the 1920s and 1970s manufacturers set up a battery of important trade organisations. “That Centredoc should, from the outset, be given independent status as a cooperative goes much deeper than historically connected facts or opportunities to be taken; it is a frame of mind,” declared Pierre-Alain Vuille, Centredoc’s sixth chairman and head of competitive intelligence at ETA, adding that “some of the credit for Swiss watchmaking’s dominant position lies here!”

Fifty years on, Centredoc has lost none of this community spirit and stays rooted in the sector. It still publishes its monthly round-up of inventions in watchmaking – the Revue des Inventions Horlogères (RIH) – alongside other bulletins that monitor the latest developments in areas such as design and materials. Its scope of action, on the other hand, has significantly evolved. The institution, which employs thirteen people, including seven engineers, now provides services in the highly specific fields of patent search and technology monitoring. Such vitality and expertise have drawn clients from beyond the watch sector, beginning in 1999 with Nestlé and its chocolate bars. While 90% of shares in the cooperative are still held by Replica Watches manufacturers, half Centredoc’s revenues and business now come from the chemistry, electronics, agrofood, medical and pharmaceutical sectors.