F.P. Journe Elegante & Chronometre Souverain

François-Paul Journe took advantage of the Geneva Week this year to present two novelties, one being an evolution of an existing model, the other being... a revolution!

Let's start with the most surprising watch!

The Elegante is a new line of watches dedicated to Ladies. But very surprisingly they are quartz powered. Surprising for us because we consider Journe as a great ambassador of high-end mechanical watches and of the watchmaking tradition. But not so surprising for him. Because the Elegante is a watch whose aim is to be perfectly designed for a lady's use. And quartz doesn't mean cheap movement. The movements of the Elegante are decorated with some features usually dedicated to  mechanical watches.

But why Journe chose this type of movement? Simply because he considers that, even if the interest for mechanical watches is increasing amongst the ladies, the most important part of them still prefers practical movements. And the whole of the Elegante was designed around this concept: easy to live with, practical. Let's take an example: if the watch doesn't move during 30 minutes, it stops in order to preserve the battery. When the watch is moved, the hands goes to the right time by using the shortest and the least energy consuming way.

The  style of the Elegante is inspired by the Vagabondage as you can see it with the case shape. A lot of references are available with different case materials and colours.

The Elegante features gems set case sides:

A version has a full set case.

The refined finishings of the Elegante movement: it is very surprising to see such type of decoration.

A very legible watch even in the obscurity!

Actually, all the Elegante watches come with a rubber strap and except in very few cases, the pieces use a rubber "inlay" on the bezel to create the colours effect. As I said previously, a wide range of colours are available.

Perfect and very comfortable on a lady's wrist!

Of course, as PuristSPro members, our heart would prefer a fine Octa Divine but after all, Journe didn't choose the easiest way to create these quartz watches which are, for me, more ambitious than, let's say, a lot of Twenty-4!

The watch which was the object of the evolution was the Chronometre Souverain.

This new version is available in the 2 usual sizes: 38 or 40mm diameter and in two materials: Platinum and Red Gold.

The dials are made of gold (Red Gold on the Red Gold case and White Gold dial on the Platinum case).

The most interesting point is the way the dials are created: the numerals are stamped from the Gold plate dial and then hand diamond-cut finished in order to reinforce their relief.

I could appreciate a lot the contrast between the feeling of relief of the numerals and the silvered opaline with grained finishing. Like the numerals, the hands are in coherence with the case: Red Gold hands with the Red Gold case and Rhodium plated silver hands with the Platinum case.

The Chronometre Souverain becomes purer and looks larger than the "classic" version with the similar diameter.


The Platinum version:

The Chronometre Souverain gets a new dynamic thanks to this beautiful and different dial:

The beautiful movement of the Chronometre Souverain:

Both versions:

The movement of the Red Gold version:

The Red Gold version on the wrist:

The Platinum version on the wrist:

Between the two versions, my vote goes to the Red Gold one. Why? Because I think that the colour of the material brings a touch of energy and warmth to this watch. The purety of the dial would become maybe too quiet with a neutral colour. Anyway, both versions are very seducing watches.

Thanks to the F.P. Journe team for the warm welcome.

Fr.Xavier
This message has been edited by foversta on 2014-03-11 15:08:40