Independence and talent: the story begins.

On May 12, 2023, Christie's held an unprecedented auction called the Art of F. P. Journe in Geneva's Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, exclusively dedicated to watches by this brand. Watches by F. P. Journe have been enjoying greater attention from collectors in recent years.

For example, one of the earliest watch editions for subscribers called Souscription Tourbillon Souverain No. 2/20, went under the hammer at another auction held by Christie's for CHF 2,707,000.  It isn't unheard of for seven-figure sums to be paid for watches by F. P. Journe at auctions, and their consistent high performance goes to show that F.P. Journe is now up there with the top independent watch brands on the pre-owned market.

The Tourbillon Souverain watch occupies a special place in the brand's collection, one reason being that the brand's story begins with this model, and it's probably one of François-Paul Journe's most famous "brainchildren".

The Beginning

François-Paul Journe was born in Marseilles in 1957. At the age of fourteen, he took the advice given to him by his uncle Michel Journe, a watchmaker who specialized in the restoration of antique clocks and watches, and went to study horology at the local technical college. François-Paul Journe was expelled.

Undeterred, he moved to enroll in watchmaking school in Paris to hone his watchmaking skills there. He decided to stay in Paris after graduating in 1976, and began working at his uncle’s workshop.

Working for Michel Journe provided him with the opportunity to learn about the exceptional examples of watchmaking mastery he encountered. Discovering books by George Daniels was a real breakthrough for young François-Paul, which spurred his idea to make a tourbillon pocket watch with his own hands.

At the age of twenty, he began to bring this idea to life. It would take him almost six years to complete the watch — a period of Journe's life which the watchmaker himself will understandably never forget. There's a good reason why he decided to mark the anniversary of his first watch thirty years later in 2013.

The 30 Years Anniversary Tourbillon, a watch most frequently referred to as the T30 by collectors, is a downsized version of his first tourbillon pocket watch featuring a tourbillon reshaped into a wristwatch. The model launched as a limited series of 99 pieces was sold directly to the most loyal clients and friends of the brand, which is why this watch is considered an exceedingly rare collector's item today.

One of these T30 pieces was sold at Christie's Hong Kong Important Watches auction in November 2022 for HKD 3,024,000.00 (around 350 thousand Swiss francs) — much higher than the original retail price.

Like Journe's first pocket watch, the T30 wristwatch was made of rose gold and sterling silver — an extremely rare combination for a luxury wristwatch. Moreover, the silver wasn't treated with any coating, so a patina had appeared on the case's silver details by the time it was listed for auction: the case sides and opening hinged caseback.

The "officer's watch" opening hinged caseback is a style inherited from traditional design of pocket watches and is rarely seen on wristwatches. Caliber 1412, which was specifically developed for this model, also looks like a downsized version of the movement Journe created for his first pocket watch.

The main thing that sets this movement apart is its escapement: the wristwatch uses a lever escapement, whereas Journe's tourbillon pocket watch uses a detent escapement.

After our quick detour to the more recent anniversary piece, let's travel back in time to the 1980s and 1990s. Having successfully completed his first tourbillon pocket watch, François-Paul Journe turned his attention to even more complicated projects.

News of the young talented watchmaker based in Paris gradually got around to major players on the luxury watch market, and Journe began receiving orders, mainly to develop and manufacture collector's pieces.

Examples included a planetarium table clock encrusted with precious stones and a series of table clocks for the British luxury retailer Asprey London, which were variations based on Abraham-Louis Breguet's famous "Sympathique" table clock.

At one point, Journe realized he was receiving most of his orders from Swiss brands, so he decided to relocate to Switzerland. In 1989, he teamed up with the watchmaker Vianney Halter and De Bethune Co-Founder Denis  Flageolet to establish a workshop that creates complicated movements called THA (Techniques Horlogères Appliquées).

Their work included the development of mechanical watches for Cartier, Ulysse Nardin, Franck Muller, Carl. F. Bucherer and Piaget. In 2007, THA was acquired by Bucherer Montres — the company that produces the watches of Carl F. Bucherer.

François-Paul Journe was very quick to realize that working for other brands wasn't for him. He knew he wanted to create a watch for his own independent brand.

So towards the end of the 1980s, Journe had already begun developing two projects for himself: the tourbillon with a constant-force escapement we now know as Tourbillon Souverain, and the dual-movement watch with two independent balances that harness the phenomenon of resonance to synchronize — Chronomètre à Résonance.

Journe founded the company Montres Journe to produce watches for the brand F.P. Journe under the motto Invenit et Fecit in 1999. They got off to a successful start — the brand's watches received a warm reception from clients and the professional community alike.

This is reflected in the recognition Journe and his watches have received from the watchmaking industry's top institutions. For example, Journe is the only three-time winner of the best-in-show Aiguille d'Or prize at the Genevan Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) — the most prestigious watchmaking contest in the world.

He was awarded the Aiguille d'Or prize for his Tourbillon Souverain à Seconde Morte watch in 2004, the Sonnerie Souveraine in 2006, and the Centigraphe Souverain in 2008.

F. P. Journe brand has remained independent since the day it was founded. The only change in the structure of Montres Journe's stakeholders was the sale of  a 20 % stake in the company to Chanel in 2018.

Montres Journe is one of few watch companies with its own facilities to manufacture cases and dials. It owns the company Les Boîtiers de Genève, which makes their cases, and the dialmaker Les Cadraniers de Genève (in 2012, Richemont Group brand Vacheron Constantin acquired a 50 % stake in Les Cadraniers de Genève).

Credits taken from: www.christies.com, www.fpjourne.com, www.quillandpad.com, www.gphg.org/horlogerie