F.P. Journe travels in time with the Historical Anniversary Tourbillon
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Louis Nardin
Journalist and consultant
“A quality watch is a concentration of creativity, rare technical and scientific skills, and age-old gestures. It appeals to the desire for uniqueness and distinction; it is a badge of knowledge, power and taste. A watch has many stories to tell; the details and secrets provide the relish”.
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Open Gallery
The Historical Anniversary Tourbillon adopts a classical style, different to that of the brand today © F.P. Journe
Open Gallery
The guilloché back of the Historical Anniversary Tourbillon recalls nineteenth-century pocket chronometers © F.P. Journe
In honour of thirty years of watchmaking, François-Paul Journe has reproduced as a wristwatch the first ever timepiece, a pocket watch, he invented and made. With its hunter case in guilloché silver and gold, the result is surprisingly up-to-date.
The Historical Anniversary Tourbillon which F.P. Journe unveiled on October 18th in Tokyo celebrates the career of an artisan-watchmaker who has transformed his name into a fine watch brand with its own production capacities. A replica in wristwatch form of the first ever timepiece he made, what the cognoscenti are referring to as the T30 (for “tourbillon” and “30 years”) dovetails past and present. Already it is seen as the epitome of contemporary horological elegance. The guilloché silver case with gold bezel reveals a splendid tourbillon movement behind an unexpected hunter caseback. Journe says he made the watch “to thank all the customers who have supported the brand from the beginning and offer them a part of its history.” This Anniversary Tourbillon will be proposed in a limited edition of 99 watches, each priced at US$ 99,000.
A test of patience
When he set about devising his first watch in 1978, François-Paul Journe was 21 years old. He was still living in Paris, where two years earlier he had earned his watchmaking diploma, and was honing his knowledge and technical skills by working alongside his uncle, Michel Journe, a respected watchmaker and restorer. For the next five years he spent each weekend working on his project for a pocket watch, designing, making and assembling each part until the watch came to fruition in 1983.
“I wanted to make a tourbillon watch because back in those days, this complication was pretty much unknown,” he recalls. “The only ones in circulation dated from the nineteenth century, and belonged to museums or private collectors. To actually come across a tourbillon was extremely unusual. Quite the opposite of today.” Whereas the original watch features a detent escapement, the T30’s 1412 calibre in gilt brass has a Swiss lever escapement with one-minute tourbillon. Winding and setting is by the crown as opposed to the original watch’s key.
That the case should reprise the gold and silver of its forebear surprises before it seduces the eye. The perfectly regular, concentric guillochage adds to the singularity of this piece. “The original case borrowed characteristics from nineteenth-century pocket chronometers in its combination of silver and gold, gold being a rare and costly metal then.” The grained silver dial is in the style of French marine chronometers of the eighteenth century, with the addition of Breguet hands. An association of elements which proves that, as Journe himself observes, “I’d yet to find my style.”
The first step
François-Paul Journe decided to reproduce his debut piece as a wristwatch for the simple reason that it “represents the start of my career as a watchmaker and inventor. I’ve been imagining and building watches ever since.” An unconditional admirer of Abraham-Louis Breguet, François-Paul Journe is at the head of one of the richest and most structured catalogues of classically-inspired brands. Indeed, he adopted this style in reference to his own conception of a watch as “a scientific instrument intended to give the time.” As for his personal touch, the details that immediately single him out, he attributes this to the fact that “when I created my first collection, a number of well-known brands were proposing classic watches. No-one would have looked at mine, and so I deliberately distanced myself from what was already available in both design and mechanics.”
Opened in 2003, the Tokyo store was the brand’s first, and where François-Paul Journe unveils all the first pieces in his limited editions. For this particular launch, the watchmaker offered the store the additional honour of a limited edition of ten, the T10, a rendition of the T30 with black microdials.
A watchmaker of distinction
Born in Marseilles, France, in 1957, François-Paul Journe holds numerous distinctions. Two, the Prix Gaïa for best watchmaker and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, acknowledge his achievements directly. In addition to these, his watches have won 15 awards since he established his brand in 1999, the year of his first collection. Located in the centre of Geneva, Manufacture F.P. Journe, where his timepieces are developed and made, produces 900 watches a year.
