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Lot Essay
This watch is one of the highly desirable and early series examples of F.P. Journe’s Chronomètre à Résonance. Launched commercially in 2000, such early specimens were, like the present watch, fitted with rhodium-plated brass movements. From 2004 onwards, F.P. Journe’s movements have famously been made from 18k gold. With a production period of only around 3 years, it is thought that less than 400 Chonomètre à Résonance were made with brass movements. With the tremendous and continually growing interest in Journe’s work, collectors have focused their attention on these early production and pre-production pieces. Consequently, the early Résonance watches which are an important part of F.P. Journe history have become extremely sought after and ever more difficult to obtain. The present watch gives collectors the increasingly scarce opportunity to obtain a sublime specimen of one of the early series of the Chronomètre à Résonance with rhodium-plated brass movement which so rarely appear on the open market today.
The Chronomètre à Résonance took several years of development and trial before it was available commercially. Officially, the model was launched in 2000 starting, as with the Tourbillon Souverain, with a series of twenty ‘Souscription’ watches numbered 1 to 20 engraved with the suffix 00R for the year 2000. These first twenty pieces were so-called because they were pre-ordered on ‘souscription’, whereby the prospective buyer paid a sum upfront in order to provide enough funds for François-Paul Journe to construct and deliver each watch. The suffixes refer to the year that the case was made and the watch completed and the letter ‘R’ for ‘Resonance’. Following the initial Souscription series, the first series production of the ‘Ref. R’ as it became known, was produced until 2004. The Chronomètre à Résonance was available in either platinum or 18k rose gold, both with 38 mm. diameter cases. The dials were available in three colours - white gold, rose gold, and yellow gold, which was reserved for use only on the platinum cased versions such as the present watch and discontinued after 2004. An interesting and distinctive feature of the dials from the brass movement period is that the frame surrounding each dial features quite defined bell shaped screw lugs, whereas the frames on post 2004 pink gold movement watches feature a more curving integrated design for the screw lugs. This subtle distinction allowed F.P. Journe to instantly visually identify a first series brass movement watch from later generations.
The Chronomètre à Résonance
Perhaps the watch that most clearly showcases the sheer genius contemporary watchmaker François-Paul Journe. It is the only wristwatch in the world with a movement based on ‘resonance’, a natural physical phenomenon said to have been first discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1665. Huygens noticed that two pendulum clocks, when hung together on the same beam would beat together in perfect synchronicity. An idea that was further experimented with by the great French clockmaker Antide Janvier and the legendary watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, both of whose work F.P. Journe greatly admires. François-Paul Journe’s resonance watches notably feature two balances that are naturally synchronized and oscillate in ‘resonance’ with each other. The negative effects of wrist and body movements are hence considerably reduced. Breguet had experimented with the theory of resonance in watches in the early 19th century and indeed constructed three pocket watches using the two-balance system. With the development and production of the Chronomètre à Résonance, François-Paul Journe became the first watchmaker to make a wristwatch constructed on the principle of resonance, an incredible achievement of modern horology.
The Chronomètre à Résonance took several years of development and trial before it was available commercially. Officially, the model was launched in 2000 starting, as with the Tourbillon Souverain, with a series of twenty ‘Souscription’ watches numbered 1 to 20 engraved with the suffix 00R for the year 2000. These first twenty pieces were so-called because they were pre-ordered on ‘souscription’, whereby the prospective buyer paid a sum upfront in order to provide enough funds for François-Paul Journe to construct and deliver each watch. The suffixes refer to the year that the case was made and the watch completed and the letter ‘R’ for ‘Resonance’. Following the initial Souscription series, the first series production of the ‘Ref. R’ as it became known, was produced until 2004. The Chronomètre à Résonance was available in either platinum or 18k rose gold, both with 38 mm. diameter cases. The dials were available in three colours - white gold, rose gold, and yellow gold, which was reserved for use only on the platinum cased versions such as the present watch and discontinued after 2004. An interesting and distinctive feature of the dials from the brass movement period is that the frame surrounding each dial features quite defined bell shaped screw lugs, whereas the frames on post 2004 pink gold movement watches feature a more curving integrated design for the screw lugs. This subtle distinction allowed F.P. Journe to instantly visually identify a first series brass movement watch from later generations.
The Chronomètre à Résonance
Perhaps the watch that most clearly showcases the sheer genius contemporary watchmaker François-Paul Journe. It is the only wristwatch in the world with a movement based on ‘resonance’, a natural physical phenomenon said to have been first discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1665. Huygens noticed that two pendulum clocks, when hung together on the same beam would beat together in perfect synchronicity. An idea that was further experimented with by the great French clockmaker Antide Janvier and the legendary watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, both of whose work F.P. Journe greatly admires. François-Paul Journe’s resonance watches notably feature two balances that are naturally synchronized and oscillate in ‘resonance’ with each other. The negative effects of wrist and body movements are hence considerably reduced. Breguet had experimented with the theory of resonance in watches in the early 19th century and indeed constructed three pocket watches using the two-balance system. With the development and production of the Chronomètre à Résonance, François-Paul Journe became the first watchmaker to make a wristwatch constructed on the principle of resonance, an incredible achievement of modern horology.