Frederique Constant?s perpetual calendar is one of my personal favorite success stories in the affordable watch space. That?s not to say their perpetual calendar is ?affordable? by any rational definition of the word, but if you know the complication, you understand that it?s usually found in watches well into five figure territory. The fact that Frederique Constant is able to produce a rather good one under $10,000 is a fairly remarkable achievement, and theoretically allows a whole new segment of the watch buying public to experience what many collectors and enthusiasts would argue is the signature complication in all of watchmaking. A perpetual calendar is one of those seemingly magical things – a mechanical watch that?s smart enough to account leap years, and theoretically never has to be re-set. As a watch enthusiast who is not particularly technically inclined, and is often astonished at the comparatively simple mechanisms in your run of the mill three-hander, a perpetual calendar, when you really stop to think about it, is kind of mind blowing. 
The newest version of Frederique Constant?s perpetual calendar is a collaboration with the Naked Watchmaker, otherwise known as Peter Speake and Daniela Marin, whose names you most likely recognize from their eponymous Speake-Marin brand, which continues today without their involvement. The Naked Watchmaker (TNW) project, if you?re not familiar with it, was conceived as a sort of watchmaking education for the...