Produced between 2003 and 2018, the Tourbillon Souvrain avec seconde morte is F.P. Journe’s update on his original tourbillon wristwatch series which began with his famed souscription pieces.
When creating this refreshed watch, the core DNA was preserved, while the entirety of the movement was redesigned except for the tourbillon cage. The dial layout remained largely unchanged, with the only major alteration being the replacement of the dial-side cutout for the remontoire d’egalite with a new subsidiary dial for the brand new dead-beat seconds complication. On the caseback to differentiate the new movement and complication, the original ‘T’ for tourbillon engraving was changed to ‘TN’, for Tourbillon Nouveau or ‘new tourbillon’. The term ‘seconde morte’ or ‘dead-beat’ refers to the way the seconds hand remains motionless or lifeless until the second has fully passed, before jumping to the next second and becoming motionless again.
The watch was originally offered in two sizes, 38mm and 40mm, but the 38mm option was produced in by far a smaller quantity and discontinued in 2015, with the apparent rarity visible in their scarcity on the market and premium in prices. The present watch also comes with a matching platinum bracelet, which is equally rare and sought after. When the time the watch was retailed, F.P. Journe bracelets were offered as an accessory to the watch but would often cost a significant sum of money, almost 20% of the price of the watch itself. This deterred many customers from selecting the bracelet option and has resulted in their scanty today.
F.P. Journe himself viewed the TN as a triumph, himself stating on the record as having no interest in making anything more complicated than a single axis tourbillon. This is reflected in the watch’s lengthy production run of 15 years. To keep the watch fresh over this time a plethora of dial variations were created. This included dials created from several hardstones, engraved tapisserie dials, and unique coloured dials to name a few examples. There have also been a high number of unique dials created for this watch for special clients or events such as Only Watch. The regular production dials were made out of 18 carat 6N white or rose gold to match the case metal.
When considering the present watch, one must take into account the rarity of the case size, 38mm, seldom seen on the market, along with the matching platinum bracelet. Each element taken alone would differentiate this watch from the majority of the production, but when added together the desirability of the watch is exponentially greater. 38mm Journe watches were produced in a very small quantity and rumoured to not be ever produced again since 2015, and Journe platinum bracelets are equally rare. To the best of our knowledge, very few 38mm TNs are known on the market, it can be said that this is one of only a handful, or certainly less than 10 that have appeared in this case size with matching bracelet, a true unicorn in its field.
