Can anyone tell me more about this Frederique Constant Depose?

[Dogbert_is_fat]

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.

[Gunnar_917]

I’m by no means an expert in FC - far from it but I’d be inclined to side with your assessment of it.

Plus the text on the movement looks about as high quality as that bezel!


Bro of OoO

[Black5]

I have to agree with you.
Although it looks like an ETA 2892, the finishing is surprisingly poor, especially in a watch with an exhibition case back, where it is expected to be seen!

I'm leaning towards a clone movement.

Could it have been swapped out at the dodgy place he took it to?

(Seems an extreme thing to do though, especially as it already wasn't working).

^^ tells the truth on Internet forums

SOoO many watches, SOoO little time...

[Sunstrooper]

Sorry to tell you, but I am pretty sure it is fake. The crown is the wrong style for that model. The guilloche of the dial is way off. The hands are wrong. The date font is wrong. There is no "automatic" written on the dial and the brand name is stamped directly over the texture instead of on a designated "plate". Last but not least - the movement used for the real model is the 2824-2 or SW200, not 2892. Below is a link to what I think is the real one and a shot of my FC with similar dial.
https://www.jomashop.com/frederique-...-303mc4p5.html

[Dogbert_is_fat]

Sorry to tell you, but I am pretty sure it is fake. The crown is the wrong style for that model. The guilloche of the dial is way off. The hands are wrong. The date font is wrong. There is no "automatic" written on the dial and the brand name is stamped directly over the texture instead of on a designated "plate". Last but not least - the movement used for the real model is the 2824-2 or SW200, not 2892. Below is a link to what I think is the real one and a shot of my FC with similar dial.

Thanks for the info @sunstrooper.

You don’t have to be sorry. I though it might be a fake but I just wanted to post this to be 100% sure.