After getting closely acquainted with F. P. Journe Chronometre Bleu, I got another F. P. Journe, for a review, which I have been wondering about: “Elegante”
Frankly speaking, I paid no attention at all when the multi-award winning master watchmaker F. P. Journe introduced the brand’s first women’s collection with an event organized in 2014. This might be so either because I wasn’t acquainted with the brand this much at the time or, maybe, because the subject was women’s watches. At that time, when it came to women’s watch, what sprung to my mind were the gold and diamond models of brands such as Cartier, Bvlgari, Chopard and Rolex. Is it F. P. Journe? Made a women’s watch? And a Quartz one? I simply thought the master just didn’t want to beat around the bush.
I’ve then explained to myself the question of why the grand master who produces tourbillons, chronometers, resonances and chronographs did make a quartz women’s watch as it would be a result of the brand’s approach like that “let there be a women’s watch series in the product range, and be it a quartz one, since the women clients don’t want to deal with winding a watch at all.”
And yet, when it was 2019 and F.P. Journe introduced the Elegante 48 series for men, my ideas about the brand, women’s watches and quartz movements had already changed.
When the Elegante 48 was introduced, it soon caught my attention, since I have now had a different opinion. As soon as I’ve made a research about the model, I felt ashamed of myself for the prejudices I’ve had about the caliber. I used to think, on my own, that Monsieur Journe somehow (!) employed an ordinary quartz caliber. However, we were face to face with a caliber that took 8 years to develop.
After this preamble, let me share with you my impressions I got during my face-time with the watch and its features.
Caliber
As I’ve just said above, the caliber 1210 took 8 years to develop. The main feature of this mechanism is its low energy consumption. Its battery life in normal use is between 8 and 10 years. If you don’t use the watch (you put it in a safe, for example), the battery is theoretically calculated to last for 18 years. Let me mention, for your comparison, that a standard quartz watch has an average battery life of 3 years.
Several techniques are used to achieve this long battery life. First of all, the watch sleeps when you don’t wear it. We can roughly liken it to the start-stop mechanism in vehicles. The watch stops when it stands still for 35 minutes. In fact, what stop here are the hours, minutes, and seconds hands. Since the microprocessor inside still continues to keep time. When you move the watch, the hours, minutes, and seconds hands instantly come at the current time. The point is that the hours and minutes hands take the shortest route to the current time. That is to say, they come to the required position by turning clockwise or counterclockwise. With such a feature assigned to the mechanism, energy saving has been intended.
Another improvement is the use of separate engines for the hours, minutes and seconds hands. In a standard quartz watch, just one engine and the gear train are used. Since gears are used, there is friction. And in order to reduce friction, oil is used. Friction increases when the oil loses its essence or dries in time. Therefore, the energy consumption also increases. Thanks to the separate engines employed in the Elegante, there is no gear used and no friction. As a natural result of this, energy consumption is lower.
After talking about the architecture and philosophy of the caliber, let me talk about its visual quality a little bit. I want to say first that it is the most aesthetical quartz caliber I’ve ever seen. As an F.P. Journe tradition, gold is used in the caliber with 18 jewels. The battery cover and the bridges are made of gold. In addition, the cover is embellished in Cotes de Geneve pattern. Last but not least, don’t ever think that it has no heart, as it lacks a balance suavely oscillating, because Monsieur Journe placed there a little sweet heart for us, moreover it is a golden one.
Case
The case design of Elegant, which is named the flat tortue® (the flat turtle!) by F.P. Journe, was previously used in the Vagabondage series. Measuring 40mm in the women’s versions, the case diameter is 48mm in men’s models. I can say that, due to the case design, the 40mm women’s version feels 36mm on the wrist, and the 48mm men’s model does 42mm likewise.
Crafted from Grade5 titanium, the case is coated with electro plasma oxidation process in order to achieve a surface highly resistant against wear, abrasion and corrosion. Due to this treatment, the watch has acquired a very pleasant dark gray color. The fully matte case has sapphire crystals at the face and the back. The bezel is fitted with 4 pieces of F. P. Journe style screws. The case measures 48mm x 40mm with a 7.95mm thickness, that is, pretty slim. The watch weighs 72gr in total. Therefore, it is incredibly comfortable.
The watch has a screw-crown peculiar to F. P. Journe. The wrist fitting structure of the lugs increases the comfort.
Strap and clasp
The Elegante is offered with a rubber strap in 9 different colors. The sample in our hand has a khaki green strap. The inner side of the strap is embossed with F. P. Journe logo, thus it is aimed to reduce sweating in the summer by leaving air gaps between the wrist and the strap.
The strap has a titanium folding clasp that bears the brand and its motto.
Dial
Seeming white at first sight, the dial actually has a pearlescent look. It’s produced from sapphire and fully treated with luminova.
It features biomorphic hands and font, which can be considered the signature of F. P. Journe. Unlike the women’s models, a track-style minute scale is used. At 6 o’clock it has a small seconds dial, and at 4.25 o’clock it has a motion sensor, half a centimeter in diameter, resembling a tiny rotor. When the watch moves, it wakes up thanks to this sensor.
The show starts as soon as the lights are off. In most watches, generally, numerals and indices are lumed while the dial remains in dark. Here, it is quite the opposite; indices are in a dark color while the dial is lumed.
Last words and price
Let me tell my idea about the watches with a quartz mechanism; I didn’t use to consider as an automobile the vehicles with an engine smaller than V8, or 6 cylinder inline engine. And now, I think to buy my next car as hybrid or full electric. I’ve understood that an automobile doesn’t consist solely of an engine. Right, the engine was also important but, at the end, you weren’t sitting on the engine or it wasn’t the engine that contacts the road. The design of the vehicle formed a whole with its production quality, interior and chassis architecture.
I’ve recently started to think just the same about the watches. Watches were, too, a whole with their brand, design, case, glass, strap, bracelet, buckle and mechanism. In other words, I’ve come to think that a watch must be evaluated completely as an end-product.
The watch in our hand is an interpretation by a great master like F. P. Journe to the quartz mechanisms at which many sniffs in haute horology. Along with its technical advantages and innovations, it’s produced with the aim of a perfect aesthetics and practicality.
The price of F. P. Journe Elegante: 12,200 Euros
For this and other F. P. Journe models, you may visit: https://www.fpjourne.com/en
