FP Journe Precious time

05 february 2005

February 5, 2006

What's an exasperated mother to do with a teenage boy who just cannot fit in with the mainstream education system? When all else fails, there's always watchmaking school. That fateful decision transformed a naughty boy into one of the great modern watchmakers. MENG YEW CHOONG spends time with a master craftsman.

AS a child, Francois-Paul Journe would disassemble anything he could lay his hands on. Whenever he was not in school – which was often – he took apart things in and around the house, like kitchen appliances and motorcycles.

Feeling that her son might perhaps benefit from some kind of vocational education, Madame Journe packed the 14-year-old off to the Marseille School of Watchmaking in France, in 1972.

Francois-Paul Journe … his name is the seal of assurance.

The restless youngster did not last long at the Marseille School either.

“Whenever he finished his work (which he did faster than the rest of his class), he would start to disturb everyone else, and he was soon asked to leave the school,” said Natalia Signoroni, public relations chief for Journe’s Geneva-based company, Montres Journe SA.

He then went to Paris serve an apprenticeship with his uncle, Michel Journe, who ran a workshop that specialised in restoring antique clocks and watches. And the young man did graduate with a diploma from Paris’ Watchmaker School in 1976.

“By earning my watchmaker’s diploma, I left scholastic rhythms behind me, with a feeling of gaining incredible freedom,” he said on his corporate website, www.fpjourne.com.

The eight years under his uncle’s tutelage brought him into contact with serious timepiece collectors and aficionados.

More importantly, his work as a watch and clock restorer meant that he had the chance to study the inner workings of famous pieces by the grand masters.

After the youthful watchmaker had acquired sufficient knowledge and confidence, he set up his own workshop at St Germain-des-Pres in 1985.

His talent caught the eyes of many entrepreneurs, who teamed up with him to turn out exquisite timepieces for various other brands and well as private collectors.

These partnerships were lucrative but did not give Journe the kind of satisfaction that he craved. His business partners were more concerned about profit whereas Journe deemed himself to be a craftsman dedicated to his art.

In the decade after striking out on his own, he garnered a few prestigious industry awards honouring him for his technical brilliance and aesthetic foresight. For example, in 1987, he was made a laureate of the Fondation de la Vocation, an honour bestowed on 30 chosen from among thousands.

There is a waiting list of at least two years for the Sonnerie Souveraine if you place your order today.

In 1997, he founded a company called TIM SA in Geneva, which is dedicated to the development of exclusive calibres, either to fulfil orders from large companies or individuals.

Two years later, he decided to do what few watchmakers still do today, and that was to launch his own brand.

That led to a collection of chronometers carrying his own signature “F.P. Journe – Invenit et Fecit”. (Invenit et fecit is Latin for “invented and made by”.)

At the same time, he set up his own company, Montres Journe SA, to distribute his timepieces.

Journe was in Singapore recently to unveil his latest creation, the Grande Sonnerie Souveraine, at the Sincere Fine Watch gallery. He was accompanied by Signoroni, who acted as his translator, since Journe does not speak English.

Journe started work on the Sonnerie Souveraine in 2000 as a tribute to the new century. Composed of almost 500 parts and offering a power reserve of up to 36 hours, it included the following technical characteristics: grand strike, minute repeater, retrograde minute indication as well as indication of grand strike, and small and silent mode (for the chime).

Grande sonnerie is a French term that describes the striking system in a clock that chimes every hour as well as every quarter with different tones.

Unveiled last year, this one-of-a-kind creation was completed in just five years, an amazingly short time for such an intricate piece of work.

“Five years is really the minimum period to achieve something like this. Others may work 20 years on the same thing, and may not even finish the piece,” said Signoroni.

Proof of Journe’s prowess came in the form of the Tourbillon Souverain wristwatch, which won the Watch of the Year award in Japan in 2004.

Although Journe’s fans had been clamouring for a grande sonnerie for years, he refused until he could come up with one that was so easy to use that “even an eight-year-old could use it” without fear of damaging the fragile mechanism.

Traditionally, sonneries are delicate instruments. For example, if a watch were to be wound while striking, major damage can occur.

Some owners overcome this by not wearing the watch at all, and just keeping them in the safe.

Journe would have none of that; he wants something functional, and really meant to be worn.

The back of the Sonnerie Souveraine is made of saphire glass to allow the intricate mechanism to be appreciated.

His painstaking effort resulted in a mechanical watch that registered 10 patents along the way, proving that a tried and tested mechanism can still be improved upon.

“On a difficulty scale of one to 10, I would say this one exceeds 10,” said Signoroni.

The Grande Sonnerie will ring every hour and every quarter, and the user can also put in on the petit mode (in which it only rings at hourly intervals), or silent mode.

It is extremely difficult to make because the mechanism must be able to hold a lot of stored energy. A single mainspring provides enough energy for 24 hours of grand strike (96 full chimes in passing), for the minute repeater, and to keep the movement going for 48 hours.

Surprisingly, there is no “Swiss Made” anywhere on the watch.

“The guarantee of quality is not Switzerland, nor any certification or any homologation ? my name is the seal of assurance. And this is enough,” said the quietly confident master, who is one of the 25 watchmakers who are members of the Horological Academy of Independent Creators (www.ahci.ch).

His workshop in Geneva produces just 700 pieces a year, and 90% of the components are made in-house. Naturally, there is a waiting list.

You want one? The Grande Sonnerie is priced around RM1.9mil (650,000 Swiss francs). A deposit of RM293,000 is required before Journe will start work on your unique timepiece. Instead of a serial number, your name will be etched on the crown and the inner mechanism.

Of course, money is not really the issue for Journe’s fans. Since only four Grande Sonneries are made each year, it is the two-year waiting period that is hard to bear.

F.P. Journe -Invenit et Fecit- Montres Journe SA

17 rue de l'Arquebuse

CH-1204 Gen?e

Suisse

Tel +41 22 322 09 09

Service de Presse : +41 22 322 09 00

email: web@fpjourne.com

F.P. Journe -Invenit et Fecit-