Although sports and tool watches are currently all the rage, there seems to be a growing interest in beautiful simple dress watches, such as this FP Journe Chronometre Souverain. So if you are looking for that one meaningful watch that you will wear on special occasions, what will it be?

For me, the choice was between two brands: Lange & Söhne or FP Journe. The pure elegance of the former was a big draw, but when discovering more about FP Journe, his story, innovation, and above all, the very small numbers produced, my choice was clear.

But it is only once I had started wearing my FP Journe Chronometre Souverain, that I started to learn more. I discovered that the unusual position of the power reserve on the dial was because Journe wanted to show that it is most associated with the crown and winding. So its logical place was next to the crown at 3 o’clock. But fitting the mechanism for the power reserve above the winding stem would make the watch thick, so Journe redesigned the power reserve mechanism to be more compact and efficient. Brilliant.

And that was just the beginning. Whilst the dial is simple and elegant, the movement you see when turning the watch around is just spectacular: the 18-carat rose gold produces a warm glow that varies depending on the light and the finishing is superb.

And then you learn more about it: the visual simplicity has a meaning. The movement is divided into two parts: the heart (the balance wheel) on one side and the lungs (the twin spring barrels) on the other, with nothing in between. Journe has hidden the connecting gears between the main plate and the dial, so you can admire the two areas without distractions. Talking about the twin barrels, they are not there to have a longer power reserve. Instead, Journe’s design has them mounted in parallel, to create a much more stable source of energy within the movement, hence “Chronomètre Souverain”. Beautiful.