F.P. Journe

As I said, I appreciate Daniels post, because it creates an opportunity for us Journe aficionados to have a discussion and get a better understanding of this watch – so for me, it was very welcome here in the forum. 

We have had a bit of time now to digest this watch and try to understand what it is about. I have also had the opportunity to discuss it with several people at the manufacture and in the sales staff. So here are some of my thoughts. Ive had to break them down. They are by no means are conclusive and I look forward to exchange with forum members and learn your thoughts and views. 

I absolutely LOVE the astronomic complications that, of course, is a nod to the golden age of horological history, that is so important to FPJ and his entire watchmaking. The idea behind these ”Scientific Watches” and clocks, where purposeful. I think the press release explains this part very well. For me personally, there is also a much more “romantic” appreciation to such complications. I feel they remind us - and bring us in contact with the fact that the world and the universe is much more than just now and here. Similar to Ludvig Ochslins astronomic complications for Ulysse Nardin. 

When I first heard that the watch, was an astronomic complication, and because it is FPJ, I had probably expected a much cleaner approach to the theme. So the part I had to think more about, was that we have heard repeatedly how FPJ has never liked the multiple complication watches and how they would harm the chronometric performance of a watch. It is a view I share personally. I generally don’t care for multiple complication watches (perhaps more for aesthetical reasons and with a few exceptions) So, for him to bring this forward, of course can seem self contradictory. 

 I have since, talked to different people in Geneva. And as our very own cmmnsens has already stated - and this is my understanding as well - it was an driving point in the project for FPJ to prove that he could make such a watch. And by “prove”, my interpretation is that he wanted to take a challenge for himself of trying to make a multiple complication (a concept he generally don’t believe in) and make it in such a way, that he believed, it would no longer ruin the chronometric performance. In order to do this, he utilizes the remontoir to solve the problem of getting a constant energy to the escapement and get acceptable results.

 The Remontoir is also his reasoning in his tourbillons. He clearly states that the tourbillons are not helpful for the chronometric performance and that these watches rely on the Remontoir to perform well. 

 The evolution of this watch is is long – it doesn’t derive from an abstract thought or concept of an astronomic watch. I think it is worth reading the brochure, because it gives us a few insight ancedotes to the evolution of the piece. 

One thing it also mentions - is that the piece partially builds on the 6th pocket watch made by FPJ in 1987. This watch is quoted as an inspiration for the layout of the dial, but it is clearly also an inspiration in terms of complications. The pocket watch is a Detent and remontoire tourbillon. It has average and sidereal time. Equation f time and power reserve. It has a full calendar with 3-dimentional planetary, earth, moon, sun. This is also to say, that the new piece carries a lot of history of FPJ and I think of it more as an evolution than I did in the beginning, when the A.B. was initially 

presented.