Loading...I arrived at Geneva in the afternoon after a long drive from Germany.
I had an appointment at FP Journe first. FP Journe is located in the heart of Geneva, in a beautiful old industrial building. At the entrance, you are greeted by an elegant gentleman opening the doors for you.
This clock is standing across from you when you are walking up the stairs to the entrance hall:
Take a look at the ceiling at FP Journe. Stunning astronomic art.
This was my first visit at FP Journe in the heart of Geneva today and I was greeted very kindly and warmly. A one hour tour around the manufacture was showing me all the steps in the production process of an FP Journe watch. It was interesting to see how one watchmaker is responsible for his watch until final assembly and testing has concluded and the watch is ready for delivery. The high grade and level of finishing, the perfection of assembly, the high technology used to make all the parts of a movement was quite impressive and it teaches us how the manufactures are now able to deliver high quantities of such perfected timepieces. FP Journe is currently delivering 900 timepieces per year, and they plan to raise this to about 1200 pieces per year.
My tour of the manufacture was concluded with a presentation of each current timepiece. I really have to state that these watches deserve every bit of recognition.
Moreover, FP Journe introduced recently a more sporty timepiece. This timepiece is light as a feather as it is made of aluminum, the case, the movement, the base of the movement, everything but the rotor is made of aluminum. The only part that is made of Aluminum mixed with Tungsten to make it a little bit heavier, is the automatic rotor. Otherwise, the rotor would not be able to generate enough energy. The weight of these watches felt like nothing on your wrist, well, 53 grams is not a lot for sure.
(This timepiece is called the Centigraphe which can measure 1/100th of a second.)
While these new timepieces are in a world of their own, there is no reason to neglect the core watches made by FP Journe.
It was a great pleasure to visit FP Journe, and I am thanking Brigitte for the kind reception and for taking time to show me around the manufacture.
(Final edit 1/24/2012)
(Source: Youtube)