In 1999 Francois-Paul Journe launched his brand with the introduction of the Tourbillon Souverain featuring a world premiere remontoire system. In 2004, he pushed his concept one step further by creating a new generation tourbillon that not only maintained the remontoire (serving as a constant force device, resulting in greater accuracy and amplitude for the tourbillon-equipped escapement) but also added a "seconde morte", or deadbeat seconds.

The mesmerizing complication was first implemented in the mid-seventeenth century, but not used in wristwatches until the mid-twentieth century. The seconds hand of a dead beat seconds watch will completely stop as the escapement continues to beat, not moving until one second has elapsed - at which point it will advance to indicate the next second. This seems like a simple feature but requires a complex and precise mechanism to reliably stop and restart the seconds hand so that it does not move at the same rate as the vibration of the balance wheel. It was also with this second generation tourbillon that Journe increased the case size of his watches from 38mm to 40mm and introduced his pink gold movements, as he wanted the movements – the most important element of the watch - to be made in precious metal.

Now discontinued and perfectly balanced at 40mm, this is a contemporary horological masterpiece deriving its beauty and accuracy from the best elements of the past and the present.