Limited edition watches to celebrate the legendary Runabout yachts of the roaring 1920s

Frederique Constant unveiled a prestigious celebration of Italy and its legendary runabout yachts.

Frederique Constant’s Runabout collection was first launched in 2009, in an ode to the legendary wooden boats built in Italy on the shores of Lake Iseo. This year, two new limited editions have been added to the collection for an elegant, sporty take on the design inspired by the runabout yachts, available in 888 rose gold-plated and stainless steel units.

In 1988, up-and-coming independent family-run brand Frederique Constant was established in Geneva, the heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry. At the same time, the RHS (Riva Historical Society) was set up in Italy in a bid to celebrate the dolce vita by safeguarding one of its most famous boats. This legendary yacht, initially hand-crafted entirely from wood, embodied the inimitable, easy-going elegance of 1960s Italy.

A transalpine bond was forged between Lake Geneva in Switzerland and Italy’s Lake Iseo, uniting the two entities since 2013 in a relationship that has buoyed Frederique Constant’s Runabout collection ever since: a line first launched in 2009 in tribute to the famous runabout boats.

Heritage in motion: This year, Frederique Constant releasead two new limited editions of its Runabout Automatic timepiece in 888 units.

This resolutely contemporary design features a 42 mm-diameter dial, and is suitable for both men and women seeking masterful precision in time-keeping.

The watch face epitomises the finest of Geneva watch-making tradition, spliced through with an assertively modern feel. The Runabout Automatic offers a fresh take on a dial embellished with a delicate guilloché Clous de Paris pattern. Guilloché designs were originally intended to be both decorative and practical, lending texture to overly smooth surfaces as well as boosting readability, with each micro groove serving to temper glare and reflections from direct light. The Runabout Automatic’s central guilloché pattern set over a silver or black background allows it to capture each ray of light, imbuing the watch face with a shifting sense of texture.

The Runabout collection stands out with its large even-number Arabic numeral indices complete with five-minute markers on the rehaut.

Each hour index is applied, lending the dial depth while improving readability.

To the same end, the sword-style hour and minute hands are shot through with luminous matter to enable the wearer to continue sailing long after the summer sun has dipped below the horizon. The hands match the chosen casing, either rose gold-plated or stainless steel, with the latter featuring a turquoise blue seconds hand in a nod to the Runabout collection’s sea-inspired feel — a shade reiterated in the topstitching on the stainless steel version’s blue-grey leather strap. The rose gold-plated version, meanwhile, is fitted with a navy blue strap embellished with off-white topstitching.

Both feature FC-303 calibre, giving these two new twists on the Runabout Automatic 38 hours of power reserve. Its movement is visible for all to admire thanks to a sapphire background that offers up a glimpse of the watch’s intimate workings, engraved with the RHS (Riva Historical Society) logo. Each piece is presented in a special case containing a miniature replica of one of these iconic wooden yachts moored alongside the watch.

Riva Days 2022

Finally, 2022 also happens to mark one hundred years since the birth of a man who forever changed the face of the recreational boating industry: Carlo Riva, who was born on February 24th 1922 in Sarnico, on the shores of Lake Iseo, and passed away on April 10th 2017. This ingenious motorboat designer revolutionised the sector with his now-legendary luxurious Riva yachts. The Riva Days 2022 event in July served as an opportunity for Frederique Constant and the RHS (Riva Historical Society) to pay tribute to this visionary and his unwavering passion.

Frederique Constant and the RHS (Riva Historical Society) paid tribute to these legendary boats during the Riva Days 2022, an international event which took place at Switzerland’s Société Nautique de Genève.

The prestigious Société Nautique de Genève club was set up in 1872 and turns 150 this year. It is world-renowned for its sailboat and motorboat activities. In 2003 and 2007, the Alinghi and SNG teams scooped the America’s Cup, among other accolades. Home to over 4,000 members and a harbour equipped with 1,000 berths, this is Switzerland’s biggest club.