- Movement
- Self-winding
- Size
- 42 mm
- Edition
- Produced, in the brand's words, as a small series following the FFC Blue unique piece for Only Watch 2021.
Overview
Hours counted on the fingers
The F.P. Journe FFC, reference FFC, in 18K 6N gold on a leather strap. 42 mm and 10.7 mm high; automatic calibre 1300.3, the Octa base, showing the hours as digits on the animated fingers of a titanium hand and the minutes on a rotating ring, with 120 hours of reserve.
The FFC tells the hour on a hand: a titanium hand whose five fingers rise and fall to show the twelve hours as digits, with the minutes read from a ring that turns past a fixed pointer at 12. F.P. Journe traces the watch's story to Francis Ford Coppola. In 2009 his wife gave him a Chronomètre à Résonance; he invited Journe to his Inglenook winery in the Napa Valley, and when they met in 2012 asked whether a watch could show the hours as the ancients counted them, on the fingers. Journe took up the problem in 2014, and the prototype, the FFC Blue, became the unique piece for Only Watch 2021. This reference belongs to the small series of a timepiece inspired by the FFC Blue prototype. The hand's form comes from a drawing of a prosthesis by the sixteenth-century French barber-surgeon Ambroise Paré, chosen so that the hand would not read as a naturalistic one.
The movement is the Octa calibre 1300.3, the brand's automatic base with an off-centre rotor winding in one direction, and the display is added to it without a second power source. A remontoir d'égalité sits between the going train and the hand, as it does in a tower clock with long, heavy hands to move. For 40 minutes of every hour the movement rewinds it, a blade spring in a small barrel; on the hour a lever the brand likens to an escapement acting once an hour releases it, and the stored energy turns a stack of ten cams that make one revolution in twelve hours. The cams work springs and toggles that raise or lower the four fingers and slide the thumb, the fingers riding on a steel sling with little friction. Because the display is fed by the remontoir rather than by the train, the energy taken for one finger, or for four between 5 and 6 and between 9 and 10 o'clock, is the same every hour and does not disturb the balance. Removing the dial and replacing the minute hand with a ring on a large extra-flat ball bearing gave the millimetres the hand needed: the case is 42 mm and 10.7 mm high.
For collectors
The base is the Octa calibre, which F.P. Journe dates to 2001, and its five-day reserve is what makes the display possible: its point is that this mainspring's torque stays linear across the 120 hours, so the remontoir has something even to store and release each hour. The engineering argument F.P. Journe makes is that the complication adds nothing to the movement's demand, and the outward evidence it offers is the case height, no more than a plain Octa's. The hand is engraved titanium rather than the bronze first considered, for the weight of the moving parts.
Key details
Design and engineering
- Animated handEngraved titanium, on a form taken from Ambroise Paré's prosthesis drawing. Titanium keeps the moving parts light so that the display does not raise the calibre's consumption; the brand says bronze was the first thought.
- Hourly remontoir d'égalitéA blade spring in a small barrel, rewound by the movement for 40 minutes each hour and released on the hour by a lever the brand describes as an escapement that acts once an hour. The hand is moved by this stored energy, never directly by the train.
- Ten camsTurning once in twelve hours on the left of the movement, visible beside the minute ring, each cam's profile and teeth work springs and toggles that raise or lower a finger or shift the thumb. The fingers are carried on a steel sling and move, in the brand's words, like a loom shuttle.
- Rotating minute ringThe minutes are read against a fixed cursor at 12 from a ring on a large extra-flat ball bearing, a device the brand had used for the Astronomic Souveraine's annual calendar. Doing without a conventional dial and minute hand is what fitted the mechanism into a 10.7 mm case.
- Octa baseUni-directional automatic winding by an off-centre rotor, slipping mainspring, three-position crown with time setting in position 2; titanium bridges with Titalyt® coating.
Calibre 1300.3
- Automatic winding, uni-directional, off-centre rotor
- Titanium bridges with Titalyt® coating; slipping mainspring; three-position crown
- Instantaneous digital hours by animated titanium hand; minutes on a rotating ring
- Free-sprung balance with four inertia weights, flat Anachron micro-flamed spring; in-line lever escapement, 15-tooth wheel; 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz), 63 jewels
- Power reserve 120 ± 12 hours; amplitude 280° dial-up at 12 h, 220° at 90 h
- 34.20 mm overall diameter, 8.10 mm high, 396 parts (436 cased on a leather strap)
The reference
Technical specifications
| Reference | FFC |
|---|---|
| Collection | Classique |
| Calibre | Calibre 1300.3 |
| Movement | Self-winding |
| Functions | Instantaneous digital hours, Minutes on rotating dial |
| Case dimensions | 42 mm |
| Case thickness | 10.7 mm |
| Case material | 18K 6N Gold |
| Dial | Instantaneous digital hours indicated by the animated fingers of a Titanium hand, rotating minutes |
| Strap | Leather strap |
| Jewels | 63 |
| Power reserve | 120 ± 12 hours |
| Frequency | 21600 VPH, 3 Hz |
| Edition | Produced, in the brand's words, as a small series following the FFC Blue unique piece for Only Watch 2021. |
Buying with HYPA
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