THIS WATCH WAS PRODUCED BETWEEN 2018 AND 2019.

THE CASE OF 44 MM DIAMETER AND 11 MM THICK, WITH BEZEL INLAID WITH CERAMIC, ENCLOSES THE OCTA 1300.3 AUTOMATIC MOVEMENT WITH A VERY LARGE DATE, MADE IN ALUMINIUM ALLOY.

THE DIAL IS IN ALUMINUM ALLOY OF YELLOW OR ANTHRACITE COLOUR WITH LUMINESCENT APPLIED NUMERALS, SECONDS COUNTER IN WHITE SAPPHIRE AND LUMINESCENT HOURS AND MINUTES HANDS. WITH AN EXTREME LIGHTNESS AND IN ABSOLUTE COMFORT, THIS WATCH IN ITS TOTALITY ONLY WEIGHS AROUND 83 GRAMS.

LE BOÎTIER ET LES MAILLONS SONT SERTIS D’INSERTS EN CAOUTCHOUC À L’INSTAR DES PARE-CHOCS DE VOITURES ANCIENNES, QUI PROTÈGENT LE MÉTAL DE LA MONTRE DES FROTTEMENTS SUR LES SURFACES LISSES. LES MAILLONS DES ATTACHES SONT ARTICULÉS AFIN DE S’ADAPTER AUX DIFFÉRENTES TAILLES DE POIGNET ET LA BOUCLE DÉPLOYANTE EST AJUSTABLE EN LONGUEUR DE PLUS OU MOINS 5 MM.

THE AUTOMATIQUE RÉSERVE FEATURES A DAY AND NIGHT INDICATION AND A DATE NOW EVEN LARGER (4.7 X 2.6MM) FOR OPTIMAL READABILITY. THE AUTOMATIC WINDING MECHANICAL MOVEMENT USES ANY SLIGHTEST MOVEMENT OF THE WRIST TO INCREASE THE WINDING OF THE WATCH PROVIDING 160 HOURS OF POWER RESERVE.

Calibre OCTA

A horological ideal

“The construction of the Octa calibre has less powerful ties with horological history than do the constant-force device or resonance models, but it symbolises an horological ideal of giving timekeepers the highest possible degree of precision and autonomy!

One can indeed note the fact that if church clocks are placed so high, in addition to enhancing visibility, it was mostly because it often took an entire month for the driving-weights to drop the length of their cords. Numerous systems were invented to increase the operating duration of timekeeping devices, meeting with various degrees of success. Given the small volume of a wristwatch, the size of the mainspring was automatically limited. Watchmakers therefore discovered the trick of adding an extra wheel to the customary geartrain in order to extend the duration of its development. Unfortunately, actually using this system, even with a stronger spring, led them to observe that the level of energy actually reaching the balance remained low. To compensate for this, they fitted a smaller balance using less energy, but which was also less stable. It is therefore not unusual to find that some watches able to run for several days display an extremely unpredictable level of precision.

This challenge was a powerful source of motivation! I then imagined that the best and the most obvious means of extending the running duration would be to extend the capacity of the spring development. The difficulty lay in integrating it on the same level as the gear-train and the escapement, given its stability: 1 metre and 1 millimetre thick. Thanks to the low torque of this spring, I could achieve extremely fast automatic winding (one and a half hours on a Chappuis cyclotest for over 5 days’ running).

Once the challenge of autonomy was thus successfully met with this automatic winding calibre, I knuckled down to the second challenge of managing to insert various complications into that same movement: power reserve with large date display, fly-back chronograph with large date display, retrograde annual calendar, etc… and of doing so while maintaining an identical size for all models.

Three years of research and development were required before this automatic winding movement that is unique in the world could be presented to the public.”

François-Paul Journe