Hello members of Frederique Constant (sorry to Ateliers deMonaco and Alpina fans)
First time posting on this watch brand thread as I spend most of my time in the Public Forums, Omega and Rolex threads.
Background story to this is that my wife's uncle knows I am into watches and can do basic watch maintenance and has decided to give me his Frederique Constant Depose which was not working. He has worn it for a long time, gone un-serviced and it stopped recently. However, he was on a holiday in Asia and took into a watch shop and the guy returned it to him and said it was "spoilt" and "couldn't be repaired".
So, he promptly passed the watch to me to "repair". I looked at it and while I don't profess to be an expert in all things FC, I have doubts on its authenticity as I have never seen one image of an exact watch during my searches on the websites, images, as well as in these pages of WUS. I am at a lost and am turning to you - the wonderful people of WUS.
Here are the pictures and I would appreciate if someone in the know can shed some light.
The dial - why I doubt the authenticity is that all FC watches I have seen have the word "AUTOMATIC" on the bottom line just above the 6 o'clock and the brand "FREDERIQUE CONSTANT" is on a raised flat piece looking like applied onto the dial rather than printed on the linen pattern.
The Crown - a mini onion crown
The caseback - exhibition caseback with ETA 2892-A2 movement. I have opened it to examine the movement.
Tarnished bezel - wonder why a gold plated watch would tarnish so badly??
I am sorry if this is too long.