page_title: Frédérique Constant
section_title: Silicon escapement wheel
hierarchical_section_title: Frédérique Constant / Products and product features / Silicon escapement wheel
caption_attribution_description: English: Featured in the Frederique Constant Heart Beat FC-945 Silicium Calibre, this silicium escapement uses less power and maintains amplitude more efficiently than a standard lever escapement, because it functions without lubrication.
context_page_description: Frédérique Constant SA is a Swiss manufacture of luxury wristwatches based in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva. It was acquired in 2016 by Citizen Holdings of Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1988 by Peter Stas and Aletta Stas-Bax.
  Before the sale to Citizen, Frédérique Constant SA was owned by Union Horlogère Holding B.V., which also owned Alpina Watches International SA, and Ateliers deMonaco SA, and was, in turn, owned by Frédérique Constant Holding SA.
context_section_description: In February 2007, Frederique Constant began production of the Silicon escapement wheel (first introduced to the industry by Patek Philippe in 2005). The company introduced the Heart Beat Calibre FC 935 Silicium in October 2007. It implements new high-tech materials to create better, more precise and more reliable mechanical watches. Deep reactive-ion etching is used to shape silicon wafers into escapement wheels, pallets, and plateaus. Silicon is lighter, harder and stronger than metal. Etched into tiny skeletal structures that would be impossible to form with metal, it becomes the featherweight heart of a mechanism that can run at a far higher accuracy. The silicon parts are virtually frictionless, so need no lubrication, and are immune to most external forces. And when bonded with a carbon coating, silicon's only real drawback, brittleness, can also be overcome.
caption: Frederique Constant escapement wheel made of silicon
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