- Movement
- Self-winding
Overview
The Octa, read from the centre
The F.P. Journe Octa Automatique Réserve Black Label in platinum with a blackened guilloché silver dial, 10.6 mm high. Self-winding calibre 1300.3 with central hours and minutes, small seconds at 4:30, large date and power reserve at 9 o'clock.
The Black Label Automatique Réserve sets a blackened guilloché silver dial in a platinum case. F.P. Journe gives its production as 2007 to 2013. The brand created the Black Label collection, when it made about 900 watches a year, as a platinum, black-dial line available only to owners of an F.P. Journe watch and sold only in its boutiques and Espaces.
The Octa line that F.P. Journe presented in 2001 gave every complication the same case size and a 120-hour reserve. The Automatique Réserve came with calibre 1300.3. Journe says some clients had difficulty reading the time on the original Octa dial, and he used the new calibre to build two models with central hands, this one and the Automatique Lune, their dials inspired by the Chronomètre Souverain, the watch that won the men's category at the Geneva watchmaking Grand Prix in 2005.
The new calibre also changed the winding. Journe reports a friend whose Octa was never fully wound because his right hand hardly moved at a computer. In calibre 1300.3 the rotor winds in one direction only, on ceramic balls that let it turn one way and block it the other; when the wearer is still, the rotor returns to its resting position, so each slight movement is used for winding. The Octa's five-day reserve and variable inertia balance carry over.
For collectors
This is the plainer of the two central-hand Octas: time, small seconds, large date and the reserve indicator, without the moon of the Automatique Lune. The reserve is what the Octa was built around, and the one-way rotor exists so that a wearer who moves little still keeps it full.
Key details
Design and engineering
- One-way rotor on ceramic ballsThe off-centre rotor drives in one direction and locks in the other, so the small movements of a wrist at rest still add to the wind.
- Long, low-torque mainspringThe Octa reserve comes from extending the mainspring's development rather than adding a wheel to the train, which keeps energy at the balance; a slipping mainspring prevents overwinding at full wind.
- Variable inertia balanceFree-sprung, with inertia weights setting the rate, a flat microflamed Anachron spring laser-fixed by Nivatronic, a mobile stud holder and a pinned stud. In-line lever escapement, 15-tooth wheel.
- Central handsHours and minutes at the centre, small seconds at 4:30, large date and reserve at 9 o'clock, inspired by the Chronomètre Souverain's dial.
- Three-position crownPosition 2 sets the date by turning in opposite directions; position 3 sets the time.
Calibre 1300.3
- Automatic winding, uni-directional, off-centre rotor on ceramic balls
- 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz), 37 jewels
- Power reserve 160 ± 10 hours
- Amplitude dial-up 280° at 12 hours, 220° at 90 hours
- 30.80 mm overall diameter, 5.80 mm high, 259 parts
- Circular stripes on the bridges, base plate partly circular-grained, steelwork with polished chamfers and straight graining
The reference
Technical specifications
| Reference | AR |
|---|---|
| Collection | Black Label |
| Calibre | Calibre 1300.3 |
| Movement | Self-winding |
| Functions | Centre hours and minutes, Small seconds at 4:30, Large date, Power-reserve indicator at 9h00 |
| Case material | Platinum |
| Dial | blackened guilloché Silver |
| Jewels | 37 |
| Power reserve | 160 ± 10 hours |
| Frequency | 21'600 Alt/h, 3 Hz |
| Distribution | Black Label collection: available only to owners of an F.P. Journe watch, in F.P. Journe boutiques and Espaces. |
| Status | No longer in the current collection |
Buying with HYPA
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