F.P. Journe Only Watch 2021: New Release

ChristianDK · 2021-07-01T14:22:19Z

Explore the F.P. Journe Francis Ford Coppola watch for Only Watch 2021. Dive into its innovative finger-counting display and the community's reactions.

Key Points from the Discussion

The watch features an innovative, albeit less intuitive, way to display hours using a hand with fingers, drawing parallels to Vacheron Constantin's 'heures sautantes' with its triangular minute marker.
The finger-counting system on the watch, while practical for 12 hours, highlights the cultural variations in finger counting, with different regions depicting numbers like '3' distinctly.
The display of numbers using fingers can be understood through binary counting, where N fingers can represent 2^N unique numbers, making 5 fingers capable of representing up to 32 numbers.
Despite its technical innovation, some collectors found the aesthetic of the Francis Ford Coppola watch to be a 'face plant,' questioning F.P. Journe's decision to present such a design given his usual selectivity.
The watch's instantaneous automaton for time display represents a significant technical achievement, reflecting F.P. Journe's inclination to pursue interesting horological challenges for their own sake.
It is highly unlikely that this unique piece will enter regular production, aligning with F.P. Journe's history of creating special, limited-run pieces like the Vagabondage series.
The mathematical constraint of 12 hours for a single five-fingered hand is noted; a 24-hour system or additional hands would introduce further complexity or allow for more indications like date or minutes.

The Discussion

Jp75

Jul 1, 2021

Innovative …

Thanks for sharing, very innovative way to display the time. Funnily enough was reading on Vacheron Constantin « heures sautantes » and see certain similarity with the triangular marker pointing to the minutes around the case. The hours presentation with the hand and fingers is cool but somehow less than intuitive especially when jumping from the sequence of 1,2,3,4,5 … to 6,7. However I like it very much for trying new ways. Btw I wonder if the display of numbers using fingers of one hand is so

ChristianDK

Jul 1, 2021

My pleasure. thank you for your input.

I think you have a point that it is not super intuitive. However, Im not the one to tell how he could have done better - given the challenge. I suppose one would need to "learn" the sequence and then it makes sense. Perhaps a bit like sign language.

FabR

Jul 1, 2021

Thanks my friend for sharing the interesting news (and watch! ;-) Many of these unique pieces by the 54 participating brands are already available at the official Only Watch site -- the interested reader may view them at:

Only Watch - the official website Certainly an unusual watch by FPJ, which will attract lots of attention! On a simple/humorous mathematical note, glad that the hours to display were 12, because with 33 or more, the "complex challenge" would have been mathematically impossible on one (five-fingered) hand! ;-)) Curious choice also by Patek, among others, who went for a desk clock! Cheers.

Jp75

Jul 1, 2021

Thanks

Thanks for bringing-up the point of « up to 32 « as it gave me the opportunity to reminisce probabilities and stat classes. A bit like crosswords and sudoku. Must confess I spent the (full) last 5 minutes trying to compute c(5,0) , c(5,1) … c(5,5) and coming slowly to <33 Thanks for the brain hack!

FabR

Jul 1, 2021

My pleasure, and the math is correct! ;-)) Here's a simpler way to compute that sum and arrive at 32 (I'm writing it quickly as I'm sure you'll understand it given the math you already wrote ;-) It follows from the following small theorem/observation:

Observation: In your notation, the sum c(N,0) + c(N,1) + ... + c(N,N) equals 2^N ("2 raised to the N"), for any N. (Begin proof: Any given element either belongs to a subset or it doesn't, giving you two choices per element. Hence, the total number of choices, or of subsets, is 2 x 2 x ... x 2 (N times)=2^N. End of proof ;-) The situation FPJ was studying for his watch was simply the special case corresponding to N=5 (the number of fingers), yielding a desired total of 2^5=32 Cheers.

Jp75

Jul 2, 2021

Thanks … these were the days

Thanks for the reminder and the trip down the memory lane…. it brings me back on time, when the purity of math & sciences was reigning (instead of tactics, incentive management and realpolitik). On the other hand, at that time neither FPJ, PP, VC nor AP we’re on the cards. Well, I guess life is made of the choice one makes. Therefore it is for me so exciting to see people like FPJ who follow their true passion and make their dream come true. Always amazed when I read how someone interested in to

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