- Movement
- Manual winding
- Size
- 40 mm
Overview
The earlier Résonance
The F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance, reference RN, in 18K 6N gold on the 6N gold bracelet, 18K 6N gold dial with two whitened guilloché silver sub-dials, the earlier construction on calibre 1499.2, produced between 2004 and 2010. Two independent balances kept in step by resonance, crown at 12 o'clock. 40 mm, 9.1 mm high.
This is the Chronomètre à Résonance in its earlier construction, on calibre 1499.2, which the brand states was produced between 2004 and 2010. F.P. Journe gives the model's origin as a tribute to the eighteenth-century work on resonance of Antide Janvier and Abraham-Louis Breguet, who had noticed the effect on their clocks and set out to use it in regulators. Journe's own first attempt, by his account, was a pocket watch in 1983 that did not yet perform as he wanted; fifteen more years of work brought the first resonance wristwatch, unveiled in 2000. The Résonance in the brand's current collection is a different construction.
Calibre 1499.2 carries two balances and two escapements in one 18K rose gold movement, 32.60 mm across and 4.50 mm high. F.P. Journe's account of the mechanism runs as follows. Each balance acts in turn as exciter and resonator; once both are in motion they fall into sympathy and beat in opposition, resting against each other, which gives their motion more inertia. A disturbance that would shift the rate of an ordinary watch here accelerates one balance as much as it slows the other, and the two work back towards their common rate until the disturbance is cancelled. The condition is that the two balances differ in rate by no more than five seconds a day, cumulated over six positions, and F.P. Journe calls adjusting them extremely delicate.
For collectors
What separates this construction from the current one is on the case: the crown is at 12 o'clock, a button at 4 o'clock resets both seconds hands, the reserve is read at 11, and the case is 40 mm and 9.1 mm high. Inside, nothing holds the two balances to a common rate but each other, so the five-second adjustment F.P. Journe describes is the whole basis of the watch's timekeeping.
Key details
Design and engineering
- Two balances in resonanceTwo balances, each with its own escapement, in one movement. Each serves in turn as exciter and resonator; once both are running they fall into sympathy and beat in opposition, which F.P. Journe describes as resting against each other and gaining inertia.
- Self-correcting rateA jolt that would shift the rate of a single balance speeds one of these and slows the other by the same amount. The two then draw back together to their common rate and the disturbance is cancelled, which is the brand's case for resonance on the wrist.
- AdjustmentResonance holds only if the two balances are regulated to within five seconds a day of each other, cumulated over six positions. F.P. Journe calls the adjustment extremely delicate.
- Two dialsLeft and right time displays, two small seconds at 6 o'clock, power reserve at 11 o'clock. Setting is by the crown at 12 o'clock in position 2, one direction for the left dial and the other for the right.
- Seconds resetA button at 4 o'clock returns both seconds hands to zero together.
- FinishingPartial circular graining on the base plate, screw heads polished and bevelled with chamfered slots, pegs with polished rounded ends.
Calibre 1499.2
- Manual winding, 27 turns of the crown
- 18K rose gold
- Two linear escapements with 15-tooth escape wheels; two balances with four inertia weights, two flat micro-flamed Anachron springs, free sprung
- 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz), 36 jewels
- Amplitude 320° dial-up at full wind, 270° after 24 hours
- Autonomy 40 ± 2 hours
- 32.60 mm overall diameter, 4.50 mm high, 299 parts
The reference
Technical specifications
| Reference | RN |
|---|---|
| Collection | Souveraine |
| Calibre | Calibre 1499.2 |
| Movement | Manual winding |
| Functions | Double display: Left dial (digital) indicating 24 hours, Right dial (analogue) indicating 12 hours, 2 small seconds at 6h00, Power reserve at 11h00 |
| Case dimensions | 40 mm |
| Case thickness | 9.1 mm |
| Case material | 18K 6N Gold |
| Dial | 18K 6N Gold and whitened guilloché Silver, double display (analog 12 hours) |
| Hands | blued Steel |
| Bracelet | 18K 6N Gold |
| Jewels | 36 |
| Power reserve | 40 ± 2 hours |
| Frequency | 21 600 Alt/h (3Hz) |
| Movement parts | 299 |
| Status | No longer in the current collection |
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