Francois-Paul Journe launched his namesake brand with the motto “invenit et fecit” (invented and made) in 1999, first introducing the Tourbillon Souverain Remointoir d’Egalite, known as the “T”. In 2003, Francois-Paul Journe pushed the boundaries of his timekeeping masterpiece further, upgrading the “T” to the “TN” model (“Tourbillon Nouveau”), the reference Tourbillon Souverain Remontoire d’Egalité avec Seconde Morte. “Seconde Morte”, the art of making time stand still, is the French term for “dead beat seconds”. This complication requires the utmost precision to reliably stop and restart the seconds hand as the escapement continues to beat—not moving until one second has elapsed, then jumping to the next second. Enhanced with a deadbeat seconds complication, the timepiece with constant force mechanism was designed for highly accurate, precision timekeeping. With the introduction of an 18 karat pink gold movement and cased in platinum as well as pink gold, it was in production until 2018.

Now discontinued, the present 40mm Tourbillon Souverain in platinum with a white gold dial is a subtle and classic example of Journe’s longest-running tourbillon iteration thus far, and an icon of the already iconic brand. Recently serviced at F.P.Journe in Geneva in 2021, it comes with all of its original accessories and remains preserved in splendid condition, ready to be enjoyed by the next collector of innovative watchmaking.