Hello Albert
Thank you for sending in this rare wristwatch to mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall try to help you with that today.
TITLE:
Fine and rare, two time zone, platinum chronometer wristwatch with resonance controlled twin independent movements, 40-hour power-reserve indication and a platinum F.P. Journe buckle, Case No. not supplied, "Chronomètre à Résonance" model, made by F.P. Journe, Geneva, Switzerland, circa 2008 (from client). Accompanied by the F.P. Journe fitted box, warranty, instruction manual and spare straps.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: 40mm diameter, two leaf, solid, polished, round platinum dial bezel with harp shaped platinum lugs, transparent case back secured with 6 screws, fluted top and side crowns are engine-turned in "Cordes de Marseille" pattern, sapphire crystals front and back. {The crown at 12 o'clock winds both movements, independently setting the hours and minutes of each twin subsidiary guilloche silver dial. The crown at 4 o'clock synchronizes both seconds hands.} The platinum edge of the transparent case back cover is marked, “PT 950” with Swiss and French platinum hallmarks, “inv/fecit” (motto -"He invented it and made it”), F.P. Journe (the inventor and maker), Case number and serial number are obliterated in the photo. (If made in 2008 part of the case number would be marked ‘08RN’). The watch has a flexible lug so as to expose the crown at twelve more easily and the lug attaches the case to a black leather strap with platinum F.P. Journe buckle.
Dials: Twin subsidiary guilloche silver dials with concentric radial Arabic numerals for hours and minutes and the off-set seconds just below, all secured to a brushed 18K white gold plate by 6 screws, up and down 40+ hour power reserve indicator at 12. The dials have printed Arabic numbers for hours and minutes, with two fully independent oscillators. A combined power reserve with an indicator energizes both time zone displays while a subsidiary seconds’ sub-dials have zero resets to coordinate the seconds, which resonate with each other in the movement keeping them working in synchrony. Exclusive blued-steel tapered pointy Journe hands. The dial is signed, “F.P. Journe, Invenit et Fecit, Chronomètre à Résonance".
Movement: This is the caliber F.P. Journe 1499-2, made with damascened 18k rose gold plates and bridges, twin independent complete trains set on a single plate, 36 jewels, twin straight-line lever escapements, twin beryllium 4-arm balances with 4 adjustable timing weights, shock absorbers, self-compensating free-sprung Invar balance springs. One of the escapements is mounted on a small platform pivoting around the second wheel by means of rack and pinion to adjust the distance between the 2 balances in order to establish the most efficient position for resonance synchronization. It oscillates at a frequency of 21,600 bph. To say it again - This chronometer has resonance controlled twin independent movements – two escapements working together – a radical design that took twenty years of research. Dial, case and movement triple signed.
CONDITION:
Case – Very good to excellent condition.
Dial – Excellent
Movement – In very good to excellent original condition and assumed functional.
Some of these watches were made in limited editions and for specific venues. This example is not one of those. The case number has been obscured a well as the serial number.
HISTORY:
F.P. Journe is a Swiss high-end watch manufacturing firm founded in 1999 and named after the founder, François-Paul Journe. The only three-time winner of the Aiguille d'Or grand prize from the ‘Fondation du Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève’. F.P. Journe focuses on complex precision chronometers with a production of around 800 watches per year. 20% of the company was acquired by Chanel in 2018 for an undisclosed amount. F.P. Journe is the only watchmaker still based in central Geneva with company headquarters, manufacturing facilities, and an exhibition space with library housed in a converted gas lamp factory in the Coulouvreniere Rois neighborhood. F.P. Journe also owns its own casemaker, Les Boîtiers de Genève, and its own dial maker, Les Cadraniers de Genève, housed in the same facility in Meyrin, a municipality in the Canton of Geneva.
The company's motto, ‘Invenit et Fecit’ ("He invented it and made it "), denotes that the company designs and builds the entirety of the watch movements.
The F.P. JOURNE CHRONOMÈTRE À RÉSONANCE Dual Time was introduced in 2002, and it won the Watch of the Year jury award in Japan in 2003; it received the grand complication prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve in 2010. Prices for these watches have changed since they were originally made, and prices have increased. I will try to show that in some type of chronological order under comparables, below. Understand the difference when you see a retail price, which will be so marked, from the fair market value that I will provide at the end of this appraisal. Retail prices will generally be in the vicinity of twice the fair market value.
COMPARABLES:
2016 ~ https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/f-p-journe-lot-303-279?browse_all=1&page=1&q=Journe+resonance (in 18k gold sold for $33,000)
2016 ~ https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/f-p-journe-lot-301-190?browse_all=1&page=1&q=Journe+resonance (in platinum sold for $50,000)
2018 ~ https://www.phillips.com/detail/fp-journe/CH080118/136?fromSearch=F.P.Journe&searchPage=1 (In platinum, Sold for CHF83,750)
2018 ~ https://www.phillips.com/detail/fp-journe/HK080118/834?fromSearch=F.P.Journe&searchPage=1 (In platinum and sold for $33,000)
2018 ~ https://catalog.antiquorum.swiss/en/lots/f-p-journe-resonance-lot-311-238?browse_all=1&page=1&q=Journe+resonance (Only one of five made for Pisa, Milano, sold for 74,704 Euros.
2018 ~ https://www.barnebys.com/realized-prices/lot/a-very-fine-and-highly-attractive-pink-gold-dual-time-eV5SxZHYp (In 18k rose gold this sold for $46, 250)
2020 ~ RETAIL ~ https://www.chrono24.com/fpjourne/chronometre-a-resonance--id17483845.htm (In platinum offered for $175,000)
2019 ~ https://www.phillips.com/detail/fp-journe/CH080119/33?fromSearch=F.P.%20Journe&searchPage=1 (Platinum, made in 2007 and sold for 62,500 Swiss Francs)
2020 ~ This is the sale of the same watch first sold in 2018 (above), one of only five made to celebrate a 60th anniversary of Pisa horology in Milan, and now sold for 325,000 Swiss Francs)
PRICING:
The pricing in today’s market is not only related to condition but to the year of manufacture to some degree, the earliest model appear to sell for more. The fair market value of your rare platinum wristwatch would fall into a range between $55,000-$75,000. However, with such high-end quality, hand-made timepieces anything can happen when more than one bidder is involved.
Thank you for using mearto.com for your appraisal. It was my pleasure to examine this fascinating and precision timepiece which I understand is mad to run within five seconds within a 24-hour period.
My best,
David