Fashion / Style

Rarer Than Rolexes — Truly Discerning Watch Collectors Jump Into the More Secretive World of F.P. Journe

A Watchmaking Legend

BY // 09.15.21

Lest you are one of the elite members of the fraternity of haute horology, you undoubtedly failed to notice the small coterie of gents discreetly strolling into a private room at The Annie Café in Houston on a recent night and a different clutch on the following evening maneuvering through Fig & Olive to a private space. The men were the guests of internationally renowned watchmaker F.P. Journe, whose coveted timepieces range from $13,400 to approximately $962,000.

It is a rarified world in which keeping the hours of the day and days of the month plays secondary to a fascination with the underlying mechanisms and appreciation of the esthetics. It is a brotherhood of financial titans.

“Obviously, you come for the watch but you stay for the people and you stay for what everyone has to offer,” F.P. Journe sales advisor Julian Duque says. “We love to connect our collectors and that was the point of the dinners.”

Duque had flown in from Los Angeles where he serves as sales advisor in the F.P. Journe boutique, one of only three in the country, the others in New York and Miami.

As the Robb Report noted last year, “When master watchmaker François-Paul Journe created his Chronomètre à Résonance timepiece 20 years ago, it was the first wristwatch to ever achieve the phenomenon of natural chronometric resonance through dual movements that synchronize themselves for greater accuracy.”

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All F.P. Journe watches are handmade in Geneva, Switzerland, with mechanisms made in rose gold.

Watch collectors and engineers are undoubtedly familiar with what to the uninitiated could be something of a foreign  language — chromatic resonance, constant force mechanics, escapement, complications (any function beyond keeping time), etc. But these are elements that make F.P. Journe watches some of the most sought-after in the world.

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The firm produces no more than 900 watches a year, all hand made in Geneva, all movements made in rose gold. If you order one today, it will be 2023 to 2024 before the mechanical timepiece is in your hands. For certain models, the wait time could last into 2028.

Putting that in perspective, Duque notes that Rolex produces from 1 to 1.5 million watches a year while the even more prestigious Patek Philippe brings 70,000 to market. In other words, he says, Rolex produces more watches in one week than F.P. Journe has produced in the firm’s 22-year history.

During Journe’s two decades-plus, the master watchmaker has created 28 different models, entirely different watches with different movements. In the world of timepieces, 64-year-old Journe is considered a genius.

“If you appreciate watches, you need to know who this guy is,” Duque says. “He is incredible. He’s one of the greatest living minds that creates incredible watches, incredible pieces.”

In fact, Journe, who has many awards and honors under his belt, is the only watchmaker ever to three times earn the highly-coveted Aiguille d’Or grand prize from the Fondation du Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

The growing number of global collectors and demand is evidenced by the secondary market in which prices are more than double the retail cost while auctions are “hammering down in the millions.” For example, at the Phillips Watch Auction XI in Geneva in May 2020, two of Journe’s Tourbillon Souverain watches fetched a total of close to $2.6 million.

Journe’s latest creation is the stunning FFC Blue developed as a prototype for the biennial Only Watch 2021 charitable auction in Geneva on November 6. The time is marked by a blue hand with mobile fingers that appear or disappear instantaneously, indicating the hours by their position. The minutes are driven by a rotating disk located at 12 o’clock.

At the 2019 auction, Journe’s Astronomic with 18 complications commanded more than $1.2 million. The sky is the limit this November.

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