The Frederique Constant Classics Runabout has always occupied a particular place in the Geneva Manufacture’s catalog: a limited edition released on a two-year cycle, its design rooted in a partnership with the Riva Historical Society that goes back to 2013. Each edition pays tribute to those handcrafted wooden boats that defined a vision of postwar leisure on the Mediterranean and the transalpine lakes, and each has built on the last technically as well as design wise. The 2026 edition raises the stakes by introducing a Manufacture GMT to the mix, the first time the Runabout collection has carried a dual-complication movement.
Both 42mm versions of the Classics Runabout Automatic GMT run on the FC-350 caliber with a dedicated GMT module, displaying a second time zone via a centrally mounted 24-hour hand tipped with a luminescent arrow. The date sits at 6 o’clock, and the 24-hour scale at the center of the dial removes any need for a separate day and night indicator, keeping legibility clean. Power reserve sits at 38 hours, and the movement’s vertical Côtes de Genève finishing is visible through a smoked sapphire caseback engraved with the white pennant of the Riva Historical Society. The dials themselves are the heart of the design: satin-finished, vertically striped to evoke the hand-fitted teak planks of a Riva foredeck, and offered in either deep blue or warm teak brown. Applied luminescent Arabic numerals and slender baton indexes share a vintage-inflected font that suits the institutional character of the collaboration.
Each of the 888 pieces per dial color is individually engraved and presented with a miniature replica of one of the legendary Riva boats alongside the watch itself. Limited editions released on a fixed schedule with genuine mechanical substance tend to hold collector attention across cycles, and the Classics Runabout has proven that over more than a decade. The addition of a Manufacture complication to what has always been a design-forward piece gives the 2026 edition a reason to stand on its own.
