- Movement
- Manual winding
- Size
- 40 mm
Overview
A wristwatch marine chronometer
The F.P. Journe Chronomètre Souverain Nacre, reference CS, in platinum on a leather strap, with a whitened guilloché silver centre inside a blue mother-of-pearl hour ring and blued steel hands. 40 mm and 8 mm high, calibre 1304 in 18K rose gold, with small seconds and power reserve.
The Nacre version, produced between 2011 and 2022, belongs to F.P. Journe's Collection Boutique Nacre: an hour ring in mother-of-pearl with blue Arabic numerals around a clous de Paris guilloché centre, and blued steel hands. The platinum case takes blue mother-of-pearl around a whitened silver centre; the 18K 6N gold case takes pink mother-of-pearl around a 5N silver centre.
F.P. Journe modelled the Chronomètre Souverain on the marine chronometers of the early nineteenth century, the instruments that kept time at sea so that a ship's longitude could be worked out. The wristwatch keeps their priorities: hours and minutes, a separate small seconds and a reserve indicator. It received the Best Men's Watch prize at the Geneva Grand Prix d'Horlogerie in 2005, and the brand calls it a model of reference.
Calibre 1304 is 4 mm thick, with base plate and bridges in 18K rose gold. Its two mainspring barrels run in parallel, sharing the load rather than one feeding the other, so the force reaching the escapement stays close to linear through the 56-hour reserve and the rate changes little as the springs unwind. The balance is free-sprung, adjusted by four inertia weights on its rim rather than a regulator index, with a flat Anachron spring; the escapement beats at 21,600 vibrations an hour.
For collectors
F.P. Journe regulates its chronometers in Geneva, and in Journe's own account a steady deviation elsewhere in the world is a change of gauging, not of precision: a watch that gains the same two seconds every day is doing what a chronometer should, as a ship's captain once allowed for his chronometer's known rate. Consistency, not a zero reading, is the measure the Souverain is built for.
Key details
Design and engineering
- Twin barrels in parallelTwo barrels driving the train together, rather than in series, keep the delivered force nearly flat across most of the reserve. Full wind takes 38 turns of the crown.
- Free-sprung balanceThere is no regulator index. The rate is set by four inertia weights on the balance rim, which leaves the flat Anachron micro-flamed spring undisturbed. Amplitude is 320° dial-up at full wind and 280° after 24 hours.
- Extra-flat constructionThe movement is 4 mm high and the cased watch 8 mm, which F.P. Journe describes as particularly slim.
- DialCentral hours and minutes, small seconds at 7:30 and the reserve at 3 o'clock. Time is set with the two-position crown pulled to position 2.
- DecorationPartly circular-grained base plate with barleycorn guilloché, polished screw heads with chamfered slots, pegs with polished rounded ends.
Calibre 1304
- Manual winding, 38 turns of the crown
- Base plate and bridges in 18K rose gold
- Two mainspring barrels in parallel; pallet escapement with 15-tooth escape wheel
- 21,600 vibrations per hour, 22 jewels
- Power reserve 56 ± 2 hours
- 30.40 mm overall diameter, 4.00 mm high, 161 parts
The reference
Technical specifications
| Reference | CS |
|---|---|
| Collection | Boutique |
| Calibre | Calibre 1304 |
| Movement | Manual winding |
| Movement material | 18K rose gold |
| Functions | Central hours and minutes, Sub-second at 7h30 |
| Case dimensions | 40 mm |
| Case thickness | 8 mm |
| Case material | Platinum |
| Dial | centre in whitened guilloché Silver with outer ring in blue mother of pearl |
| Hands | blued Steel |
| Strap | Leather strap |
| Jewels | 22 |
| Power reserve | 56 ± 2 hours |
| Movement parts | 161 |
| Distribution | Collection Nacre: F.P. Journe states it is available only in its boutiques and Espaces. |
| Status | No longer in the current collection |
Buying with HYPA
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