Supporting Heart Related Charities

We are in the process to plan strategy for 2015 and I would like to share with you our activities to support more heart related charities.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills 17.3 million people each year. Contrary to common belief, it is not just a man’s disease as half of all deaths occur in women, and children are vulnerable too. To protect the heart of women and children and help avoid these millions of needless premature deaths, Frederique Constant has been active in a number of heart related charities.

Frederique Constant focuses on heart related charities as it is in line with its signature, the Heart Beat. In 1994, Frederique Constant developed its first Heart Beat watch. The purpose of the Heart Beat development was to show the mechanical nature of these Frederique Constant watches. Heart Beat watches have an aperture at the position of the balance wheel to show that the movement of the watch is mechanical. Early in the 1990’s, automatic mechanical watches were slowly making their return to the market after the quartz crisis of the 1970-1980’s. Typically, the exterior of such mechanical watches looks similar to quartz watches except that the second hand moves continuously. On quartz watches, the second hand makes 60 steps per minute. At Frederique Constant, we considered it important to better show the difference between mechanical and quartz watches. In a mechanical watch, the balance wheel beats 28’800 times per hour. The balance wheel rotates clockwise and counter clockwise on its axes in a large ruby jewel. Its rotation is controlled by the hairspring, which constantly coils and uncoils, and can be seen through the open eye of the Heart Beat watches. The Heart Beat has become the signature of the Frederique Constant brand.

Since 2008, we are donating 50$ per Frederique Constant Double Heart Beat watch sold. Recipients have been the International Children’s Heart Foundation, Paint-a-Smile Foundation, American Heart Association, the World Heart Federation and many others.

While our partnership with the World Heart Federation will continue in 2015, we plan to step-up our charitable activities significantly in the coming years. Intention is to organize our charitable activities in connection to the Frederique Constant Charity Foundation that is currently being incorporated in Switzerland. We will group all our charitable donations (http://www.frederique-constant.com/charity/) into the new foundation and use funds to support more projects directly. We will also be able to support other foundations.

Our Hearts of Children (http://www.world-heart-federation.org/what-we-do/awareness/hearts-of-children/) initiative will continue. Thanks to this initiative, World Heart Federation members received support to strengthen their action against cardiovascular disease in women and children. All around the world, they are organizing events, campaigns and fundraisers to raise awareness of the adverse ways in which cardiovascular disease affects the health of women and children.

Any thoughts are welcome.

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