- Movement
- Self-winding
- Size
- 40 mm
Overview
The Octa with central hands
The F.P. Journe Octa Automatique Réserve, reference AR, in 18K 6N gold, white gold dial with gold numerals surfaced with a diamond tool, 5N gilt steel hands. Self-winding calibre 1300.3 with the unidirectional rotor: centre hours and minutes, small seconds at 4:30, large date and power reserve at 9h00. 40 mm, 10.6 mm high.
F.P. Journe presented the Octa line in 2001: automatic wristwatch chronometers with a 120-hour power reserve, all in the same case size whatever the complication. The Octa Automatique Réserve came with the revised calibre 1300.3, and F.P. Journe gives that the model was produced between 2007 and 2018. Two observations from owners shaped it, in the founder's telling. A friend's Octa never wound fully because he worked at a computer and his right hand moved too little; other clients found the classical Octa dial hard to read. The revised calibre answered the first, and this model and the Octa Automatique Lune, with central hands and dials drawn from the Chronomètre Souverain, the watch that took the Men's Watch category at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in 2005, answered the second.
Calibre 1300.3 winds in one direction. The rotor sits on a ball bearing whose ceramic balls let it drive one way and lock it the other, and when the wearer is still the rotor returns to its rest position, so that, in the brand's description, every small movement contributes to winding. The rest of the Octa is kept: the five-day reserve, rated at 160 ± 10 hours, and the variable-inertia balance, free-sprung with four inertia weights and a flat Anachron spring at 21,600 vibrations an hour, which the brand credits with the line's stability. The dial reads centre hours and minutes, small seconds at 4:30, the large date and the power reserve at 9h00; the date is set from the crown in position 2, the time in position 3.
For collectors
The dial is what marks this model out within the Octa line: central hands and a layout the founder says he took from the Chronomètre Souverain because clients had found the classical Octa dial hard to read. The winding revision that defines calibre 1300.3, the one-way rotor on a ceramic-ball bearing, is not visible from the dial side. This execution, with its white gold dial, is 40 mm.
Key details
Design and engineering
- One-way rotor on a ceramic-ball bearingThe balls let the rotor drive in one direction and block it in the other, and the rotor returns to rest when the wrist is still. The brand's aim was a watch that winds fully on a wearer who moves little.
- The Octa mainspringIn the founder's account, 1 metre long and 1 millimetre thick, laid on the same level as the train and the escapement. Its low torque is what allows fast winding, one and a half hours on a Chappuis cyclotest for more than five days' running, and a reserve rated at 160 ± 10 hours.
- Variable-inertia balanceFree-sprung, four inertia weights, flat microflamed Anachron spring on a Nivatronic collet, mobile stud holder. Amplitude 280° dial up at 12 hours and 220° at 90 hours.
- DialCentre hours and minutes, small seconds at 4:30, large date, reserve at 9h00. White gold with gold numerals surfaced with a diamond tool and 5N gilt hands.
- CrownThree positions: the date is set by turning the crown either way in position 2, the time in position 3.
- FinishCircular stripes on the bridges, partly circular-grained base plate, polished screw heads with chamfered slots, pegs with polished rounded ends, steelwork with polished chamfers and straight graining.
Calibre 1300.3
- Automatic, unidirectional winding; off-centre rotor on a ceramic-ball bearing, slipping mainspring
- Free-sprung balance, four inertia weights, flat Anachron spring; in-line lever escapement, 15-tooth wheel
- 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz), 37 jewels; balance inertia 10.10 mg·cm², angle of lift 52°
- Power reserve 160 ± 10 hours; winding speed 274 rotations per 24 hours
- Amplitude 280° dial up at 12 hours, 220° at 90 hours
- 30.80 mm overall, 30.40 mm casing-up, 5.80 mm high; 259 parts, 293 cased up with strap
The reference
Technical specifications
| Reference | AR |
|---|---|
| Collection | Octa |
| 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 dimensions | 40 mm |
| Case thickness | 10.6 mm |
| Case material | 18K 6N Gold |
| Dial | white Gold, Gold numerals surfaced with a diamond tool |
| Hands | 5N gilt Steel |
| Jewels | 37 |
| Power reserve | 160 ± 10 hours |
| Frequency | 21'600 Alt/h, 3 Hz |
| Status | No longer in the current collection |
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