Frédérique Constant, a brand that has only been around since 1988, has quickly gained a reputation for offering some of the most affordable in-house mechanical movement-equipped Swiss watches on the market.

And this year at Baselworld, they added another watch to the list: the Frédérique Constant Slim Line Moonphase Manufacture. The Slim Line Moonphase comes in a fully polished 42 mm stainless steel case. It is “slim” at 11.3 mm in thickness, and wears nicely on the wrist, but it should not be confused with a “thin” or “ultra-thin” watch, which is typically under 10 mm thick.

The dial, which is slightly domed, has a clean look with polished applied steel hour markers and polished hour and minute hands. At 6 o’clock is a sub-dial that indicates the date and moonphase. A domed sapphire crystal protects the dial.

Inside is the manufacture-made caliber FC-705 automatic movement. It runs at 3Hz, has 26 jewels, and a power reserve of 42-hours. It has been very nicely decorated with perlage, Geneva stripes, and has blued screws and gold plated skeletonized oscillating weight — all viewable through the sapphire case back.

The Slim Line Moonphase comes in five variations: steel case with silver dial, rose gold plated steel case with silver dial, 18K rose gold case with silver dial, 18K rose gold case with a chocolate dial, steel case with a navy dial.

To offer such a tastefully designed watch, equipped with a highly decorated in-house (non-ETA) movement for $3,550 — is a tremendous value.

Ref. FC-705S4S6 (steel case with silver dial – black strap), FC-705V4S4 (rose gold plated steel case with silver dial – brown strap), FC-705V4S9 (18K rose gold case with silver dial – brown strap), FC-705N4S6 (steel case with navy dial – blue strap w/contrast stitching), FC-705C4S9 (18K rose gold case with chocolate dial – brown strap)