A moon on the dial, for a quartz price.

A moonphase is a disc with two moons on it that turns once every 59 days, showing the current phase through an aperture. It does nothing useful and that is the point. It is the complication people buy for the pleasure of looking at it.

On the FC-206RS3S5 the aperture sits at 6 o’clock and is framed by an arc of date numerals, so a small pointer hand reads the date across the same window. Two complications share one spot on the dial and the layout stays calm.

Frederique Constant fits its own FC-206 quartz caliber here. Quartz is the reason the case is only 7.7mm thick and the reason the watch costs what it does. Retailers quote around 60 months of battery life, so the running cost is a cell every five years or so.

A mechanical moonphase from the same brand sits several price tiers higher. This is the version for someone who wants the dial and the Swiss finishing without the winding, the servicing or the thickness.

Two details on this reference differ between sources. Retailers list the case at 39mm; our catalogue entry carries 40mm. Retailers and the reference photograph show a steel case with blue hands and numerals; our catalogue entry describes a gold-tone case. We have not been able to reach Frederique Constant’s own page to settle either, so we do not assert them here.

What every source agrees on: a domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, 50m of water resistance, an 18mm brown leather strap on a pin buckle, and a Swiss-made quartz moonphase inside.