Thirty-eight of the sets were made to commemorate the end of the 38mm case size, (very much the choice of the original purist) and this was the first time that any Journe dress watch (excluding a grande or petite sonnerie chiming watch), was made available in steel. Four of the five pieces in the collection, including the Octa Calendrier, have been discontinued. Moreover, the original version of the
Tourbillon Souverain had never been made with a gold movement.
This example, the F. P. Journe ‘Octa Calendrier’, by independent watchmaker François-Paul Journe, won the ‘Special Jury Prize’ at the GPHG (Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève) in 2002 - the most prestigious award ceremony in the watch industry.
The Octa Calendrier is quintessentially an F.P Journe, in both its design language and movement. Housed in a classical 38 mm dress watch case, it is made distinctive by F.P. Journe’s signature ‘flat crown’ with a rope-like pattern. The silver and yellow dial is delicately textured, and displays a separate guilloché dial for the hours and minutes. The words ‘Invenit et Fecit’ are inscribed below the two subsidiary seconds (Latin for “Invented and Made”) in classic F.P Journe style - a nod to signing conventions of a century ago. To the left of the dial, the annual calendar indicates the date in two windows, with an automatically advancing date for months with 29, 30 and 31 days. Overall, the dial layout is clean and highly legible.
While this piece is undeniably attractive, it is the movement that F.P. Journe is famed for. Since the introduction of the first ‘Reserve de Marche’ in 2001, mechanical F. P Journe examples can been divided into two main movement types – the manually-wound ‘Souverain’ and automatic ‘Octa’ (Latin for ‘eight’ or ‘infinite’). Impressively, all variations within F. P Journe’s entire ‘Octa’ collection are identical, both in diameter and thickness,
incorporating fully-integrated complications within the same volume.
In 2001, the ‘Octa’ debuted as the first automatic movement to deliver 120 hours of precision timekeeping through reserved-power. The Octa Calendrier was also the first wristwatch to integrate an annual calendar with a large date.
This automatic, self-winding F.P. Journe caliber 1300.3 movement is 18-carat rose gold, with fausses côtes embellishments, constructed with 39 jewels and a shock absorber mechanism. It further features a straight-line lever escapement, and monometallic 4-arm balance with 4 timing weights, adjusted to 5 positions. It includes a self-compensating free-sprung flat balance spring, and an off-center bi-directional 22-carat gold guilloche rotor. The movement is engraved "Exclusive Power Reserve System" and "Precision Chronometer".
A Collected Man is delighted to be able to offer a rare opportunity to acquire a truly iconic, collectors’ piece. We leave the final word to F.P. Journe, who on their website state “it is extremely rare for luxury watches to be cased in steel. There are very few such watches, and they reach much higher prices at auction than the same models in precious metals. This set is intended for true collectors, those who know what is rare. The combination of 18K rose-gold movements with 38 mm steel cases makes this set the rarest of all F.P. Journe’s collections.”
Other watches from the set, including the Octa Automatique, the Chronomètre Souverain, the Tourbillon Souverain and the Chronomètre à Résonance are available in our collection of F. P. Journe watches.Viewings are available at our office in central London, by appointment only.
