F.P. Journe

Hi

I have purchased an Octa Calendrier RG.

The instruction manual states exactly as follows;

"For the whole Octa Collection. The use of a rotating watchbox could severely damage your watch. Please read the following guidelines; 276 turns in 24 hours to the left only"

Question 1: Watch winders are widely recommended for keeping your complicated watches "alive". What is specific to the Octa collection that renders them unsuitable for being placed on a watch winder?

Question 2 : If it is inadvisable to place the Octa on a winder, then why is there a specific instruction about 276 turns per day. I assume the phrase " left" only means "anticlockwise".

I am surprised how there are two conflicting statements in the FPJ instruction manual.

BTW the watch is fantastic, but the instruction manual is pathetic.

Would most appreciate your inputs.

Presently I am happy to stay away from the winder.

regds

chintu

 

 

Journe has been quite vocal about winders: Most over-wind. The Calendrier winds uni-directional, and it requires only a few turns to wind completely. I do not use a winder on mine. People whom I know who use winders will place the watch on the winder for two or three hours, then remove the watch. Personally, I wind mine by hand each day--15-20 turns, and have done so for 6+ years. All this said, the Calendrier is an annual and not a perpetual; it is quiet easy to re-set and does not need to be 'wound' in any manner on a daily basis.

I somewhat agree the manual can be confusing, but that is not limited to Journe.

Forget the winder; enjoy the beautiful piece.

Best,

Douglas

however winders are useful for perpetual calenders....



cheers

I've know of few instances where someone has left their Octa in a winder all day and every day. They ultimately experienced problems and had to send the watch into service.

I think the instructions could be more clear but do take heed of the warning. On a occasion I have put watches in the winder for about 10 minutes to give the power reserve a boost and never experienced problems. However wearing them has always been my preferred method of recharging them.

I use an Underwood 8x case mainly for display and don't actually use the winder function. Like Douglas I also manual wind some of watches even though they are automatic.

How about posting some photos for us!

If you have more than a few watches you NEED a winding solution. Preferably one that uses AC and not battery so you can switch the winder to always on and use power control adaptor plugs to switch the winder on and off very precisely. So far battery operated winders are pretty generic and I haven't found one that has a low enough turns-per-day setting for the Octa series.

There's no winding box that matches a watch perfectly. They either underwind or overwind. If it underwinds, the watch will stop working once it runs out of power and the chances of damage are probably nil. But it's pretty pointless to use a winding box if the watch stops anyway.

If it overwinds, the watch will not stop working and the safety mechanisms will not allow the main spring to over tighten and the watch will simply release the extra tension generated. So this is the preferred setting. If you overwind a lot there is a chance that the safety mechanisms for over-tensioning the main spring might fail and therefore damage the watch. But you have this risk when wearing the watch on an active day anyway so whether the damage occurs in the winder or on your wrist, damage will occur. It's not because of the box but a defective watch.

When you initially place the watch in a winder, it will probably overwind in any case assuming you've worn the watch for a while and the spring is partially, if not fully, wound up already. So no matter what the setting of the winder, there is always risk.

My belief is that so long as your Octa is not defective, placing the watch in a winder with a bit of overwinding is fine. And best placed a day or two after you have taken it off your wrist when the spring has had some time to wind down a bit so the initial overwind is not too much.

Also don't forget the correct setting for the winder box is not to fully wind the watch but to add enough power to continue running for a day longer only.

Have fun!

Hi

I agree with your explanation that the overwinding situation can occur even with simply having a wearer being very active. The very purpose of the safety mechanisims is to prevent any damage to the watch movement and I am surprised why no other marquee brand has ever advised against the winder. In fact some of the complication watches are delivered with a watchwinder as part of the package.

So I am quite concerned about FPJ prohibiting the use of watch winder.

On an important point, Richard Mille has come up with a watch that has been strapped to Raphael Nadal's wrist during tennis practice matches and has been tested for literally "G- force" impacts while on the wrist.

Is an FPJ so fragile that it cannot even handle overwinding (I am not even considering impacts from sports-active-wear).

chintu 

 

 

as Mr. Journe always states: do you keep your car running all the time? Wtach winders may be usefull for watches that need a lot of (re)setting. But none of Mr. Journe's watches are difficult to set (including the OP- perpetual Calendar), if they were, he would not make them. Would not make sense.
PIerre

A watch is meant to run continuously unlike a car because time does not stop for anyone.

The issue is simple. Is the watch built to last continuous running for a lifetime ( of course with servicing etc). If yes, then it is robustly built. If not  and it cannot withstand the simple rigour of a watch winder, then it is a disappointing work product IMHO. The choice of using or not using a watch winder should be left to user and not a limitation of the watch itself.

I have had my IWC Perp etual and AP annual calendars and GO navigators running on watchwinders without any problem whatsoever.

I purchased the FPJ simply because of the style and the original workmanship, but I must say I am taken aback by the fact that this watch cannot be put on a watch winder.

 

Regds

chintu

It's obvious you are rather upset with the conflicting instructions in the manual. Don't be, just disregard the over-safety-conscious manual and enjoy the watch. It's pretty obvious that it's not so fragile that wearing it will break the watch or else there will be a lot of complaints on watch sites such as this one. The fact that this is not happening means the watch is robust and can be work normally.

Just be aware that the winding function of the watch is very efficient and doesn't require the same amount of winding to run the watch as other movements. If you search this site there are many threads that explain this. So if you do use a winder, just set it at the lowest possible setting and wait until the movement power is near depleted before placing into the winder.

All this doesn't and shouldn't distract from your observation, it's stylish and has great workmanship!

Enjoy your calendrier! How about posting a few pics for us?

Deserves to be worn more then once in every 5 days?

In which case there should be no problem, as the excellent power reserve will suffice.

Otherwise as previously mentioned, manually wind it and enjoy watching that stunning movement at the same time.

 

I could not resist posting the JLC Reverso Quantieme Perpetuel with this. Two very un-like candidates. ( Apologies for the fingerprint marks on the Reverso).

 

They definitely compliment each other!

Looks like brother and sister! What a handsome couple. In this case I think the Calendrier is the sister.