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My Journe Journey – Part Deux – In a Spin

By: AndrewD : April 11th, 2011-23:16

Hi All,

Some of you will remember my first F.P. Journe review in August 2010. That basic Octa Rèserve de Marche has since become my favourite watch and rarely leaves my wrist (and is missed when it does). But the grail F.P.Journe tourbillon was never far from my thoughts, just as it has been for the last few years. I wrote in my Octa RdM review that this watch “… held a certain promise of things to come.” What I didn’t realise was that this might come more quickly than I imagined.

Octa RdM. Platinum case with YG dial in 38mm

It all started with a fateful dinner in Hong Kong on October 31, 2010 with an F.P.Journe collector of note. After talking about my love for the tourbillon my dining companion said “I know a man with a Journe I could connect you with”. Within a moment his iPhone was out and the connection was made. And within a week I was the owner of platinum Dead Seconds Tourbillon with white gold dial.

Dinner for two ... Sonnerie Souveraine and Octa RdM

So why the Dead Seconds and not the original Tourbillon Souverain? Well I have always loved the ‘original’ TS which had a more industrial look, a steam-punk inspired mechanical rawness, and the early Pt case and YG dial perfectly accentuated those attributes. In fact the RdM was going to be a stepping stone to that exact watch. [I was planning to purchase one watch a year for the next five years, enjoy wearing them, and then ‘blow up’ the collection to get the tourbillon for my fiftieth Birthday.] But I fell in love with the simple RdM. It sits more comfortably on my wrist than any other watch and I adore the dial and colours. So the RdM was a ‘keeper’, but I still craved that Journe tourbillon.

I vividly recall my first encounter with the Dead Seconds Tourbillon in a Singapore dealer in 2005. It was the only time I had ever spontaneously laughed (or perhaps gasped) out loud in amazement at the contrast of the ‘ticking’ seconds hand with the rotating tourbillon cage. No mater how much I love the original TS, the memory of that first encounter has stayed with me. Not to mention the philosophical idea of a watch that can ‘stop’ time, at least for a second. This watch goes beyond watchmaking for me. The design, concept and execution all come together in the right measure and tickle a certain part of my brain that no other watch has done.

I also wanted a Journe with the signature solid gold movement. I have the 22K RG rotor in the Octa, but it was always Mr Journe’s intention to have a full gold movement. The Dead Seconds provides this, and also gives me the larger 40mm case and the more symmetrical, formal and ‘dressy’ appearance of the WG face. The Dead Seconds feels like a ‘grown up’ Journe to me, and the perfect companion to the ‘baby’ Octa RdM. As a pair, these two watches are the Alpha and Omega, the simple and the complex, and the beginning and the end of my Journe Journey.

The Octa RdM and Tourbillon Souveraine ... Alpha and Omega

So to the specifics (as all my reviews require – skip this paragraph if you are prone to narcolepsy). The Cal. 1403 (14 Lignes, introduced in 2003) is a manual winding movement measuring 32.4x7.15mm with plates made from 18K rose gold. It comprises 179 components (218 when cased with strap) and has 26 Jewels. It features a 60-second lateral lever escapement tourbillon with a 90^o anchor fork and a 15-tooth escape wheel. The free sprung balance wheel has four inertia weights, a flat anachron balance spring with overcoil and beats at 21600vph (3Hz) with an inertia of 11.00mgcm², an amplitude of >280^o and an angle of lift of 52^o. The movement is housed in a 40x9.9mm Pt950 case with an 18K WG dial with guilloched solid silver hour, minute and seconds dials secured with the signature screwed, polished-steel rehaut ring. There is a 42h (+/-2h) PR indicator counterbalancing the independent seconds at 6 o’clock. Winding the watch requires 20 turns of the knurled crown. At 9 o’clock is an aperture with the tourbillon on display, supported by a one-arm balance cock which provides an unobstructed view of the polished steel tourbillon cage. Compared with the original tourbillon, the full plate on the rear has been opened up to better showcase the remontoir. Although it is nice to see the remontoir blade spinning on the original TS, I prefer this view of the remontoir in action. The watch is waterproof to 30m.

So this brings us to the Remontoir d'Egalité. Journe’s watch was the first tourbillon to feature this system, a way of providing stable torque to the escapement regardless of the state of wind of the mainspring. Combined with the (arguably) superior accuracy of the tourbillon escapement and the ‘precision’ of the dead seconds display, this combination is a reverential way to honour the gods of chronometry.

So the F.P.Journe Tourbillon Souverain Remontoir d'Egalité avec Seconde Morte (yes, it’s a mouthful) is a watch that exemplifies the journey for me: a few short years ago it was an impossible dream, but now it resides happily on my wrist. A very satisfying timepiece for the heart, the soul, and the mind.

Andrew

“Either this man is dead, or my watch has stopped.” (Perhaps both, or neither?!)

Groucho Marx, “A Day at the Races” (1937).