One of the great ironies of the watch world is that while quartz technology almost killed off the mechanical watch, nowadays, the tables have turned, and it has become difficult to buy a quartz watch, except at the very bottom of the price range. But, as always in watchmaking, there are exceptions and I want to discuss one of them here.<\/p>\n
The biggest surprise at this month\u2019s Geneva auctions was at Phillips when Paul Boutros called out an opening bid of \u20185 million\u2019 when an early F-P Journe was offered. The watch finally hammered for almost $8.5 million US, cementing Journe\u2019s position as the most desirable of the current crop of independent watchmakers. Yet, along with his tourbillons and Centigraphes, Journe also makes a revolutionary quartz watch \u2013 the \u00c9l\u00e9gante. Journe watches \u2013 at least the mechanical ones – have a family look, somewhere between Jules Verne and steampunk, but not the \u00c9l\u00e9gante; gone is the round case, gone are the guilloche finishes. Replaced by a simple flat tonneau with visible screw heads on the bezel and a bright white dial which retains Journe\u2019s Art Nouveau-style numerals and railway lines seconds track. The dial is also unusual as there is a large space at the periphery of the dial where the 4 would normally sit. This is the unique feature of the \u00c9l\u00e9gante, a mechanical inertia detector, as long as the watch is being worn, the detector is in motion, but if the watch sits for more than 35 minutes, it goes to \u2018sleep\u2019, and the hands cease to move. But the electronics remain alert, and as soon as the watch is picked up, the hands instantly move to the correct time. This gives the watch another useful benefit: the battery lasts for at least 10 years as it isn\u2019t always powering the hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"