Despite having lived some two centuries ago, Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) remains influential in 21st century artisanal watchmaking. Whilst the Chaumet Brothers from Paris were working on establishing the Swiss workshops of the modern Breguet, a young watchmaker who idolised the man - A.L. Breguet - was graduating from watchmaking school in Paris. Two years after his 1976 graduation, François-Paul Journe began work on his first tourbillon, taking the form of a pocket watch that was heavily influenced by Breguet’s style.

Journe spent his formative years apprenticing at his uncle - Michel Journe's antiquarian watch restoration workshop and his story only really begins when he moved to Switzerland in 1989 to establish Techniques Horlogères Appliquées (THA). Two of his fellow Frenchmen from Paris followed, Denis Flageollet, as well as Vianney Halter, who had urged Journe to provide him with the opportunity to join this complicated movement development incubator. Amongst the inaugural group at THA were Dominique Mouret, a talented watchmaker and restorer, as well as automaton specialists Nicolas Court and François Junod. Junod is a man whom Journe acknowledges as being one of the most gifted mechanical minds of his generation.

Journe would depart THA not long after. Two years on, he set up shop in Geneva where he built his first wristwatch, a tourbillon with a constant force mechanism that would eventually evolve into the Tourbillon Souverain of 1999, now one of his landmark creations.

The trio of watches featured below are essentially bookends of the Chronomètre à Résonance lineage – the 38 mm wristwatch is a “pre-subscription” example, part of a small number produced by Journe sometime in 1999 or 2000. And the two in larger cases are the examples of the second-generation Résonance movement, which has been upgraded to incorporate twin constant-force mechanisms for each balance wheel.

To commemorate the transition from brass to solid red gold as the alloy of choice for its movement plates, F.P.Journe created the Ruthenium series, which was produced from 2001 to 2003. Made up of five models - each limited to 99 watches and sold individually - these had their dials and movement plates coated in ruthenium, resulting in a dark grey finish.

Pictured below, from left to right: Ruthenium Series Octa Jour et Nuit, Ruthenium Series Octa Calendrier, Ruthenium Series Octa Chronograph, Ruthenium Series Chronomètre à Résonance & Ruthenium Series Tourbillon Souverain

Like the Ruthenium set, the Coffret 38 mm was a limited edition to mark a significant event in the firm’s history, in this case the phasing out of the 38 mm case in 2015. Sold only as a set of five in a coffret, or box, the watches of the edition combined a solid-gold movement with a steel case, while using an unusual mustard-colour for the dials, a twist on the traditional yellow gold dial finish of F.P.Journe. 

Though the size with which Journe made his debut, changing tastes had made the 40 mm and 42 mm cases more popular. At the same time, the larger cases allowed for bigger displays on the dial, resulting in watches like the Quantième Perpétuel, which has a far more legible calendar display than its predecessor.

Pictured below from left to right: 38mm Steel Set Tourbillon Souverain, 38mm Steel Set Chronomètre à Résonance, 38mm Steel Set Octa Calendrier, 38mm Steel Set Octa Automatique, 38mm Steel Set Chronomètre Souverain.