Montres Journe SA

Company type	Private (SA)
Industry	Designer watchmaking
Founded	Geneva, Switzerland 1999; 25 years ago (1999)
Founders	François-Paul Journe
Headquarters	Geneva , Switzerland
Area served	Worldwide
Products	luxury watches
Production output	900-1000 pieces (2023)
Number of employees	150-200
Website	www.fpjourne.com/en

F. P. Journe (legally Montres Journe SA) is a Swiss luxury watch manufacture d'horlogerie founded in 1999 by François-Paul Journe.^[1] The only three-time winner of the Aiguille d'Or grand prize from the Fondation du Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève,^[2] Journe focuses on complex precision chronometers^[3] with a production of around 800 watches per year.^[4]

The company's motto, Invenit et Fecit (Latin: "[He] invented it and made it"), denotes that the company designs and builds the entirety of the watch movements.^[4][5][6]

F.P.Journe is the only watchmaker still based in central Geneva,^[7] with company headquarters, manufacturing facilities, and an exhibition space with library housed in a converted gaslamp factory in the Coulouvrenière Rois neighborhood.^[8][9][10] F.P. Journe also owns its own casemaker, Les Boîtiers de Genève, and its own dialmaker, Les Cadraniers de Genève, housed in the same facility in Meyrin,^[11] a municipality in the Canton of Geneva. In 2018, 20% of the company was acquired by Chanel for an undisclosed amount.^[12]

François-Paul Journe was born in Marseille, France in 1957.^[13] An unruly child, he was sent to a local technical college at the age of 14. He went on to graduate from the Paris watchmaking school in 1976.

The motto of the brand, Invenit et Fecit (Latin for "[He] invented it and made it") denotes that the company designs and builds the entirety of the movements.^[4][5] Journe's movement designs are original and he has invented completely new systems, such as the resonance chronometer.^[14]

Journe was interviewed in 2008 by Lusso magazine. The writer, Oliver Walston, said "He welcomed me with a big smile, but perhaps this is because I already own two of his watches".^[14]

F.P. Journe has won the Aiguille d'Or grand prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie on three occasions: In 2004 for the Tourbillon Souverain à seconde morte,^[2] the current-generation Tourbillon Souverain with dead beat seconds; in 2006 for the Sonnerie Souverain,^[2] both a Grande Sonnerie and a Petite Sonnerie for which F.P. Journe received 10 patents;^[14][15] and in 2008 for the Centigraphe Souverain,^[2] a chronograph with timekeeping isolated from chronograph mechanism, allowing the chronograph to measure hundredths of a second despite a 3 Hz movement.^[16] No other manufacture has won the Aiguille d'Or more than twice.

F.P. Journe has also won four category prizes at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie: the 2002 Special Jury Prize for the Octa Calendrier; the 2003 Men's Watch Prize for the Octa Lune; the 2005 Men's Watch Prize for the Chronomètre Souverain; and the 2010 Complicated Watch Prize for the Chronomètre à Résonance.^[2]

F.P. Journe participated in the Only Watch auction for the first time in 2015, submitting the Tourbillon Souverain Bleu - a tourbillon watch based on the Chronomètre Bleu, including a chrome blue dial and a tantalum case, the latter which is very rare for a tourbillon.^[17] As with the standard Tourbillon Souverain, it features an in-house rose gold movement and remontoire d'égalité, as well as dead beat seconds.^[17] The Tourbillon Souverain Bleu sold for CHF 550,000 at auction.^[18]

For the 2017 edition of Only Watch, F.P. Journe donated a monopusher split-seconds chronograph in 44mm with a blue dial and featuring a completely new movement^[19] that would not be used in any other F.P Journe watches.^[20] The watch sold for CHF 1,150,000 at auction, making it one of the most expensive independent wristwatches in history.^[21][22] F.P. Journe later released a modified version of the movement in the "lineSport"-brand Chronographe Monopoussoir Rattrapante series.^[20]

F.P. Journe has donated watches to auctions benefiting Swiss charity Action Innocence [fr]. In 2015, a special purple dial Tourbillon Souverain raised CHF 650,000 while a special purple dial Élegante raised CHF 55,000.^[23] In 2017, a special purple dial Chronomètre Optimum sold for CHF 200,000.^[24] In 2023, a special purple dial Octa sold for 1,000,000 SFr.

F.P. Journe watches are only available through company-owned boutiques and official retail partnerships (branded as "ESPACE F.P. Journe"). The current 12 company-owned boutiques, listed in order of opening date, are located in:

• Tokyo, opened May 2003
• Hong Kong, opened October 2006
• Geneva, opened April 2007
• New York City, opened November 2009
• Paris, opened December 2009
• Los Angeles, opened July 2013
• Beirut, opened September 2014
• Kyiv, opened February 2017
• Miami, opened March 2019
• Dubai, opened October 2019
• London, opened September 2023
• Bangkok, opened January 2024

In 2016, F.P. Journe launched Patrimoine Service, an official program that acquires out-of-production watches for interested collectors.^[25] F.P. Journe purchases, authenticates, and services the watches at their Geneva headquarters, then resells the watches via their official boutiques and online platforms such as Watchbox.^[25][26][27] A new guarantee card, box, and three-year warranty accompany all watches sold via the Patrimoine Service.^[27] F.P. Journe is the first Swiss manufacture to offer such a service.^[25]

• Official site
• Forum on timezone.com
• F. P. Journe - Past, Present and Future