ChristianDK
[F.P. Journe Moderator]
15060
Dear Velociphile – In Your original post, In you own words, You are speculating!
Your words: “Regarding the specific issues related to the Optimum, and I am speculating, there are particular issues in manufacturing variations of Breguet's Natural escapement.”
In your next post: You have suddenly heard it from a collector, that this is a recognized fact by FPJ. – So, I am wondering, which one is it?? ;-)
I can only repeat myself: No collector or owner has come forward and stated any issue with their escapement (or other aspect of the watch for that matter). Not a single one!
Also, we cant point to other sources, where a general problem is mentioned.
So - I am not willing to acknowledge your statement as fact based on that. The last thing we want, if we want to remain a serious watch collector forum, is to have hearsay and rumors acknowledged as facts. I think we owe it to each other, to remain as precise - as possible. In fact, you say so yourself, in your opening statement - If I understood it correctly!
Now Im going to go out on a very speculative whim myself here: Could it, perhaps, be that you have misunderstood something? Because, as you say in your headline: “The challenges of the Natural Escapement (NE) are well known.” - Yes – in a historical context – your statement is absolutely correct – that was why Breguet dropped it, after he invented it. It has since been re-designed and implemented by Derek Pratt of Urban Jurgensen, F.P. Journe, Kari Voutilainen and Laurent Ferrier in different forms.
Optimum - Reliability?
Hi All, I have a friend who is interested in purchasing an Optimum. We were wondering about reliability of the Optimum. As present or past owners of FPJ watches, we know that certain FPJ movements are much less reliable than others, so it's important to g...
I have one
Owned it for a few years from new. Though I don't wear it everyday, I have never had problem with its time keeping or experience any stoppage. In fact it feels better made than my Resonance and Tourbillon DS.
I doubt it is a general issue
I can’t comment from a personal perspective since I don’t own this watch. But I do know a couple of owners and they haven’t had any issues. I haven’t heard or read about it from any other source either. But I agree with your point, that as a collectors fo...
Opinion as fact?
First off let me stop you at, "we know that certain FPJ movements are much less reliable than others." These types of statements and issues have been discussed many times across multiple brands before and I will not repeat why, without data, they are unhe...
Velociphile: Please, Don’t go in to speculation or creating false rumours!
Dear Velociphile I agree to the first part of your post. Generalizations not built on fact , like the one you point out, are of no help to the collectors community.I tried to make that point in my first response. We welcome personal experiences or data ba...
Christian: The challenges of the Natural Escapement (NE) are well known
You make an awful lot of conclusions in that post and I don't need to put up with it. When I was asking questions about another brand a while back, I was contacted by PM by another collector who interestingly had two different pieces from two different br...
FPJ has recognized issues with the Optimum...?
It's a bit odd that you're now passing on that FPJ has supposedly recognized and corrected escapement issues with the Optimum, after initially stating that you were only speculating about potential problems. Perhaps mentioning this originally would have a...
Dear Velociphile – In Your original post, In you own words, You are speculating!
Your words: “Regarding the specific issues related to the Optimum, and I am speculating , there are particular issues in manufacturing variations of Breguet's Natural escapement.” In your next post: You have suddenly heard it from a collector, that this i...
By the way. How can I delete my account?
Sad to end 16 yrs this way. But I’m done here.
I’m not sure I got the meaning of what you are implying..
But feel free to PM me if you wish. I have a big day tomorrow, so if it is lengthy I can’t promise to reply to you right away, but I wil, eventually. Best Christian
Christian, I just got some possible clarification...
After the AD's Optimum was fixed and returned, I asked what the problem was. I was told "balance obstruction." I don't know more than that but will try to find out.
Apologies if my use of "we" was unclear, my friend!...
Throughout my post, I used the word "we" to refer only to me and my collector/friend. I was not using "we" to refer to the general collector community, especially when I wrote, "We know that certain FPJ movements are much less reliable than others." I hop...
Thank you, CR!
What a really great post! First - no hard feelings regarding your initial post but thank You for the clarification 👍 it clears up a few things. Thank you, for going in to detail about your experiences with your three watches. Explaining what the problems ...
Let me enter the fray.
I have two Journes that have been nothing but reliable; and great timekeepers-the CB and an Octa Lune. I just took possession of my second Centigraphe Souverain. The chronograph hands on the first one would never reset to zero, and so I didn't keep it-it ...
Congratulations, Padj! I didn’t know you had this one.
I agree- too good to let go! You have some incredible watches, I am discovering. Enjoy your weekend with this one Best Christian
Thanks for this, Mike. Nice to know I'm not totally alone. I hope...
... the Centigraphe's behavior stabilizes and doesn't worsen. Also, I really appreciate your sharing this because this is the sort of first-hand information about reliability/functionality that I'd like to know if I were considering purchasing a watch wit...
Of course! No, you're not alone.
I believe my threesome is a very nice sub-collection. I would be very hesitant to go for something more complicated than the Centigraphe at this point. The Calendrier was on my shortlist but your experience, coupled with mine, makes me stop.
Interesting that you had this issue with the Resonance...
In my long post above, I wrote, "...one fellow local collector (who is probably reading this now) offered to buy the Calendrier if I ever wanted to sell it, even though he knows about the problematic history and has had his own issues with a different (co...
I guessed that!
Wonderful idea, that has to be incredibly hard to pull off. Journe does not walk away from a challenge-the thing I admire, I guess. Think about the complications he has tackled over 20 years, as a one-man idea bank; the only thing missing is to couple a p...
LOL 😆 thank you for chiming in, my friend. Highly appreciated.
It is always great to read you. Best Christian
FPJ and reliability
This brand produces some of the coolest watches and movements I’ve ever seen. OTOH, my simple time-only CS has broken twice since I bought it in 2010, and both times I ended up paying very significant repair fees, despite my attempts to get the brand to t...
I don’t want to create any additional tension here. I do think comments about personal opinions and observations should be allowed.
As long as they are not passed off as fact and the author states it as such. Specifically, saying “In my opinion...” I’m grateful for the personal experiences of enthusiasts on this forum. I have flirted with purchasing a Calendrier for years and haven’t ...
I absolutely agree :-)
Personal opinion and personal observations are very welcome here. The good as well as the bad. Members must have the possibility to share their experiences, problems, criticize ect - thats how we learn and get to understand about the watches we are drawn ...
Well you've read about my Calendrier problems, but...
... quite a few others say their Calendriers have worked flawlessly for years. So I guess it's hit or miss. When I sent mine back to FPJ for about the 3rd/4th/5th time (I can't remember, at this point), I asked that the movement be swapped. I was told tha...