- Movement
- Self-winding
- Size
- 40 or 42 mm
Overview
A perpetual calendar set from the crown
The F.P. Journe Quantième Perpétuel Black Label, reference QP, in platinum, blackened guilloché silver dial with white gold numerals and apertures, rhodium-plated steel hands. Self-winding calibre 1300.3 in 18K rose gold, perpetual calendar with instantaneous jump: day and month at 12, large date at 6, reserve at 9. 10.85 mm high.
The Black Label Quantième Perpétuel is the platinum watch with a blackened guilloché silver dial, 18K white gold numerals and apertures and rhodium-plated steel hands. F.P. Journe gives the collection's terms: with a production the brand puts at about 900 timepieces a year, it wanted a still more restricted watch, available only to owners of an F.P. Journe watch, in platinum with a black dial, and sold only in the F.P. Journe Boutiques and Espaces.
Simple calendar watches, which F.P. Journe traces to the eighteenth century, had to be advanced by hand at the end of every month shorter than 31 days. A perpetual calendar carries a mechanical memory of the four-year cycle, 1461 days, so that the lengths of the months and the 29th of February are taken into account on their own; F.P. Journe describes that as a long-standing ambition of watchmakers. F.P. Journe's Quantième Perpétuel is that complication on the automatic Octa base, calibre 1300.3 in 18K rose gold, with the brand's instantaneous jump and a dial arranged for legibility: two large apertures for the day and month, and the large date in two windows, which the brand describes as a specificity of its watches.
Perpetual calendars are generally driven from the hour wheel through a differential arrangement, and their memory is a small toothed planet wheel connected to the month mechanism that turns once in four years; in the fourth year it lets the display show 29 February before moving to 1 March. Because the displays here jump rather than creep, a device accumulates energy and releases it in one go when the date, day or month changes, then brakes the moving parts at the end of their travel. Under the hour and minute hands a small central hand reads the year of the cycle, 1, 2 and 3 in black and L in red for the leap year. Even this mechanism has to be corrected by one day on 1 March 2100, which F.P. Journe attributes to the Gregorian calendar rather than to the movement.
For collectors
The usual objection to perpetual calendars, which F.P. Journe names, is that they are hard to adjust. Here every correction is made from the three-position crown: in position 2 one direction moves the date and day together, the other the day alone. Only the month and leap year are set elsewhere, by a lever hidden and protected under the lug at 1 o'clock. The case carries no correctors and no tool is needed, so an owner can set the watch through the four-year cycle unaided.
Key details
Design and engineering
- Instantaneous jumpThe date, day and month change in one step. A mechanism stores energy and releases it at the moment of change, then slows the display at the end of its travel, which is what lets the large apertures switch without a period of half-shown figures.
- Four-year memoryA small planet wheel linked to the month mechanism turns once in four years, and in the fourth shows 29 February before 1 March. The year of the cycle is read on a small central hand: 1, 2 and 3 in black, L in red.
- Corrections from the crownPosition 2 corrects the date and day together in one direction and the day alone in the other; position 3 sets the time. The month and leap year are corrected by a protected lever under the lug at 1 o'clock. No tool is needed.
- DialDay and month in two apertures at 12 o'clock, the large date in a double aperture at 6, the power reserve at 9 and the leap-year hand at the centre under the hands. Blackened guilloché silver with 18K white gold numerals and apertures; rhodium-plated steel hands.
- Octa baseCalibre 1300.3 is the brand's automatic base. In the founder's account its mainspring is 1 metre long and 1 millimetre thick, laid on the same level as the train and escapement, and its low torque allowed fast automatic winding: one and a half hours on a Chappuis cyclotest for over five days' running. The off-centre rotor in 22K 5N gold winds in one direction through a self-blocking ball bearing.
- DecorationCircular graining on the 18K gold base plate, circular Côtes de Genève on the 18K gold bridges, polished screw heads with chamfered slots, pegs with polished rounded ends, steel parts hand-polished and chamfered.
Calibre 1300.3
- Automatic, unidirectional winding; off-centre 22K gold guilloché rotor
- Base plate and bridges in 18K rose gold (4N)
- Perpetual calendar with instantaneous jump
- Free-sprung balance with four inertia weights, flat Anachron spring; 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz)
- Winding speed 274 anti-clockwise rotations per 24 hours
- Amplitude 280° dial up at 12 hours, 220° at 90 hours; autonomy 160 ± 10 hours
- 33.00 mm overall diameter, 30.40 mm casing-up, 6.20 mm high
The reference
Technical specifications
| Reference | QP |
|---|---|
| Collection | Black Label |
| Calibre | Calibre 1300.3 |
| Movement | Self-winding |
| Functions | Central hours and minutes, Indication of leap year with centered small hand, 1, 2, 3 in black and L for the leap year in red, Day and month at 12 o'clock in 2 apertures, Large date at 6 o'clock in double aperture, Power reserve at 9 o'clock |
| Case dimensions | 40 or 42 mm |
| Case thickness | 10.85 mm |
| Case material | Platinum |
| Dial | blackened guilloché Silver with 18K white Gold numerals and apertures |
| Hands | rhodium plated Steel |
| Power reserve | 160 ± 10 hours |
| Frequency | 21'600 Alt/h, 3 Hz |
| Distribution | Black Label: available only for owners of an F.P. Journe watch, and only in the F.P. Journe Boutiques and Espaces. |
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