Complicated watches are pretty amazing. Hundreds of parts united in the space of mere millimeters, driving all kinds of stunning functions that never cease to fascinate. There is a downside to such breathtaking pyrotechnics, and it’s directly related to Murphy’s infamous law which states, “what can go wrong, will go wrong”. Simply put, highly complicated watches are much more fragile than ordinary timepieces, and many demand great caution when handling and operating them.

This brings me to the F.P. Journe Sonnerie Souverain watch, which is just amazing to me, based upon the nature of what Francois-Paul set out to do. He took what is widely considered to be the most intricate and fragile mechanism in all of haute horlogerie (the “grande et petite sonnerie”) and went back to the drawing board to create an incredible wristwatch which is user friendly, engineered to prevent catastrophic damage due to improper operation, and yet performs as well or better than existing sonnerie watches. Five years of intensive development, and 10 patents later, his watch was complete, and it is impressive, both as an accomplishment of fine watchmaking, and as a testament to the engineering brilliance and tenacity of Francois-Paul Journe’s mind–a spark of which is in fact present in each F.P. Journe watch.