A Closer Look (Up!) At The F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain Vertical

Fascinated since birth with precision and high-end mechanical watchmaking, François-Paul Journe has continuously strived to surprise fans and delight collectors with watches featuring unusual tourbillon regulators. A true connoisseur of the sophisticated mechanism developed and perfected by Abraham Louis Breguet in 1801, Journe acquired a full understanding of the principle while still very young, producing his first tourbillon in a pocket watch when he was barely 20 years old. He went on to repeat the feat in 1991, but this time the tourbillon was inside a wristwatch. He then bcontinued his innovation by making a tourbillon coupled with a constant-force style device in 1999. The first 20 pieces of the Tourbillon Souverain, as it was known, marked the beginning of a whole new journey for the unusual timepiece. Ever since then, the rebellious artist has regularly redesigned and engineered the remontoir d’égalité (to give its accurate name), revising and adapting it to his changing visions and fancies.

In 2003, the second generation of the Tourbillon Souverain came into being, this time with a natural dead seconds marker and a calibre crafted in 18K solid rose gold. Combining the magic of the fluidly rotating tourbillon and the staccato progression of the dead seconds, this reference of fine chronometry to made its mark on an entire industry. With this particular watch, François-Paul Journe laid the foundations for what has become a monument of traditional watchmaking design that is widely acclaimed by professionals in the industry.
 

Nonetheless, Journe has always been keenly aware that the profession is rapidly changing and that, to stay ahead in this cutting-edge sector, a watchmaker needs to perpetually keep his nose to the grindstone. Thus, to ensure this skilled craft lives on and continues to shine through in each of the brand's creations, and to celebrate the milestone 20th anniversary of the icon this year, the brand was eager to add a new generation of exceptional timepieces to the Tourbillon Souverain line launched in 1999.

The so-called remontoir d’égalité transmits a constant force to the tourbillon by regulating that emanating from the barrel via the wheel train. In doing so, it ensures that the regulating organ contained within the tourbillon, which in this case makes one revolution every 30 seconds, continues to oscillate with virtually the same amplitude. In order for the precision regulator to fulfill its task, the tourbillon, when the watch is set down, would ideally need to be in a position where it could avoid the effects of peripheral friction arising from a change in orientation.
 

This might appear to be a trivial detail, but when the classic tourbillon is located in the axis of the bottom plate, there is no friction between the two balance pivots and the jewel bearings when the watch is flat, but there is friction when the watch is on its side. In the case of the vertical tourbillon, there is friction with the pivots in the same balance wheel, whether the timepiece is set down flat on a table or placed on its side due to the presence of the deployant buckle. This constant state of friction ensures that the watchmaker tasked with the fine-tuning of the piece can achieve consistency in the oscillation rate of the balance wheel, whether the piece is flat or on its side, a necessary requirement if the high chronometric quality is to be targeted.