F.P. Journe

The Resonance phenomenon

 

A sampling of information from the F.P. Journe catalog about the Resonance Chronometer. All information copyright Montres Journe SA.

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Chronom?tre ? R?sonance

"I will try to explain the historical reasons that led me to build such or such a watch. As far as the resonance phenomenon is concerned, the intuition that energy is dissipated without being lost goes back to the 18th century and the research performed by the great chemist Lavoisier, who stated in his famous theory which highlights my modest explanations: ?Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed?. With the invention of the pendulum, watchmakers noticed that their beat often interfered with their environment and it was not unusual for a pendulum clock to stop of its own accord when the pendulum entered into resonance with the driving-weight suspended from its cords. The brilliant watchmaker or ?mechanical engineer? as he described himself, was the first to have the feeling that one might turn this disadvantage into an asset: Antide Janvier, born in 1751 in St Claude, France. His idea was to build two complete movements with two precision escapements and to place them close to each other, ensuring that the two pendulums were hanging from the same construction. Just as he imagined, the pendulums recovered the energy dissipated by each other and began to beat together, thus entering into resonance.

Maintained by this wave and thus protected from outside vibrations, this principle considerably enhanced their precision. About 1780, Antide Janvier built two precision regulators, one of which is preserved at the Paul Dupuy museum in Toulouse and the second in the private collection of Montres Journe SA, Geneva. A third desk-top regulator is kept in the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. Thirty years later, Abraham-Louis Breguet built a resonance regulator for Louis XVIII, King of France, which is now part of the collection of the Mus?e des Arts et M?tiers in Paris; and a second for the King of England, Georges IV, which is housed in Buckingham Palace. He also made a pocket-watch based on the same principle for each of these illustrious figures. To my knowledge, no-one else in watchmaking took any further interest in this fascinating physical phenomenon!

The advantages of this phenomenon in terms of precision led me to pursue my own personal research and attempts which, after fifteen years, enabled me to adapt it to a wristwatch for the second model in the Souveraine collection: the Resonance Chronometer. I felt that this resonance system was particularly well suited to the various wrist movements that subject watch mechanisms to repeated jarring which is detrimental to their smooth running.?

Fran?ois-Paul Journe



Keith Jarrett

?According to my experience, resonance involves all fields. This is particularly obvious in music. Lutes and sitars, for example, have strings whose only reason for existence is to vibrate by resonance; the musician never touches them, despite their proximity to the strings that are plucked. In life itself, as in mechanical systems, resonance occurs at each moment. I remember the day I first noticed that the same music resonated differently when different people were present in the same place. The closer two lovers feel, the greater effect they have on each other. In a similar manner, the closer two opposites are brought, the more strongly they repulse each other. It is already some time since people realized it is possible to change the sound coming from a set of sound equipment simply by modifying its resonance. The sound emitted by an apparently inert object (such as an amplifier) may fundamentally change according to the material on which it is resting, or the density of objects placed on its upper part. Moreover, it seems perfectly possible to increase (or detract from) the precision of a mechanism by using the resonance of another mechanism placed close enough to have the desired effect on the first. They might be said to be working in tandem, mutually controlling each other, in much the same way as what you experience when you are accompanied by just the right person when listening for the first time to the sound of a recording you have just made.?

Keith Jarrett, February 2002



?Nothing is lost, nothing is created; everything is transformed



Their gaze riveted on the electrocardiogram of the mechanical hearts, the watchmakers in the Chronom?tre ? R?sonance workshops are alert to the slightest hitch in the smooth running of their prot?g?s. Ensuring the magical harmony between the two movements making up this unique creation calls for subtle and eminently rigorous rating in more than six positions!

From the age of twenty-one, Fran?ois-Paul Journe began his first research into the effects of resonance in the watchmaking field. This phenomenon had attracted several great 18th century watchmakers but had subsequently been abandoned for almost two centuries. Admiring and passionately interested in this topic, the young watchmaker shared his discoveries with a friend, a metallurgical engineer in the French navy who was himself confronted with the detrimental effects of this physical phenomenon. He made a first resonance pocket-watch, but which did not work as well as he had expected. In due time, however, his experience and constant dedication to research let Fran?ois-Paul Journe to present a creation that is unique in the history of horological science: the first resonance wristwatch.

For the very first time, a mechanical movement is designed, developed and built to meet the demands of wear on the wrist. But what actually is the resonance phenomenon? Two frequencies which harmonise. Any animate body transmits a vibration to its environment. When another body picks up this vibration, it absorbs its energy and begins to vibrate at the same frequency. The first is called an ?exciter? and the second the ?resonator?. This physical phenomenon known as ?resonance? is an integral part of our daily life and yet we hardly even notice it. When we are looking for a programme on a radio, it crackles until the chosen wavelengths meet those of the transmitter: only then do they harmonise to begin resonating together!



Chronom?tre ? R?sonance



In the case of the resonance wristwatch created by Fran?ois-Paul Journe, each balance alternately serves as exciter and resonator. When both balances are in motion, they reach a state of ?sympathy? through the effect of resonance and begin to beat naturally in the opposite direction. The two balances therefore support each other, giving greater inertia to their movement. This harmony is only possible if the difference in frequency between the two is no more than five seconds per day accumulated in 6 positions. Adjusting them is an extremely delicate task. While an external disturbing movement affects the running of a traditional mechanical watch, in the case of a resonance watch this same disturbance has the effect of accelerating one of the balances and slowing down the other. Little by little, the two balances come back together to reach a point of agreement and thereby eliminate the disturbance. This innovative chronometer offers a level of precision that is unrivalled among mechanical watches.

More than a century later, Fran?ois-Paul Journe paid homage to the research performed on resonance by the greatest 18th century watchmakers, through presenting the first wristwatch chronometer.