Frederique Constant Enlists The Highlife and Classics for a French Foreign Legion Collab

Well, this is a new one for me. We've seen plenty of watch brands partner up with military divisions of various exclusivity and in varied geographic locations. What I haven't seen before is a watch brand partnering with the French Foreign Legion, the French Army branch that has recruited from abroad since 1831. And that's what Frederique Constant just did. Interesting. The collaboration is based on two watches, the sporty Highlife Automatic and the dressier Classics Index Small Seconds.

The Highlife is 39mm wide and 10.34mm thick in steel, brushed and polished, topped with a convex sapphire crystal, with 100 meters of water resistance. Those are some really nice numbers. The screwed caseback is engraved with the Legion insignia and an individual edition number. The Classics matches the 39mm width but grows to 11.65mm thick, fully polished, with 50 meters of water resistance and an engraved threaded caseback.

The Highlife dial is sandblasted golden sand colored with no hour markers at all, just a black minutes and seconds track at the edge and the Legion's seven-flame grenade recessed at 6 o'clock. I like it a lot. You get polished hands with white lume, and a framed date at 3 o'clock. The Classics goes with grained charcoal, a beige-and-red minute track, applied lumed markers and the grenade again inside the small seconds subdial. Handsome, and easy to forget.

The Highlife uses the FC-303, built on the La Joux-Perret G100, beating at 4Hz with 68 hours of power reserve. It comes with a brown croc-pattern leather strap, a steel bracelet and a black rubber strap, all quick-release. The Classics uses the FC-530, a Sellita SW260-1 base beating at 4Hz with 38 hours of reserve, on a five-link steel bracelet with a spare brown leather strap. Both come in a wooden box with a detachable embroidered patch, in case you'd like to wear the collaboration on your jacket too.

The Frederique Constant Highlife Automatic x French Foreign Legion is priced at €1,995 and the Classics Index Small Seconds Automatic x French Foreign Legion at €1,595, each limited to 888 pieces, a nod to the Legion's 88-step marching pace and its eight combat regiments. Part of the proceeds goes to the Legion's mutual aid association for former Legionnaires and their families. See more on the Frederique Constant website here and here.