Hands-On: F.P. Journe’s Year-Old Restaurant Just Earned A Michelin Star; Now You Can Get An Élégante To Go With It – But There’s A Catch
Finding a good restaurant is like discovering a good secret. You don’t want to share it with too many people, but part of the fun is keeping the secret alive by making it worth knowing. It’s also how F.P. Journe (which made some news last week) and its fans operate. Often, clients find out about upcoming releases well before they technically should become public. So, for Journe lovers, this might be one of the worst-kept secrets in watches, but I get to be the first to bring you the official story of one that was quietly released and already delivered but never officially announced.
This is an F.P. Journe Élégante that you can’t buy in boutiques. You can’t beg François-Paul or U.S. General Manager Pierre Halimi or anyone else for an allocation. But if you had moved to Geneva last year and commited yourself to a delicious, decadent, expensive, and (now) Michelin star diet, you could have maybe earned a chance to get a watch that’s one of the most fun (and delicious) stories I’ve covered all year. This is the F.P. Journe Élégante “Le Restaurant.” Actually, let’s backpedal a minute. This is F.P. Journe Le Restaurant.
It is, as it sounds, a restaurant that’s loosely based around the theme of François-Paul Journe, watchmaking, etc., that officially opened on November 1, 2023. Sitting on Rue du Rhône in Geneva, south of the river, in a historic building, Le Restaurant is as tasteful as you’d expect. The references to Journe and watchmaking are not in your face. However, things like diagrams of Journe movements, affordable (and expensive) trinkets from the Journe brand, and table plates that label each table with the name of a famous watchmaker all make it clear. This restaurant is by watchmakers for watchmakers (and their customers).
An 17th-century astronomical clock signed “Giovanni Brugell Venetia” that sits on the wall in the restaurant.
An F.P. Journe Alarm Clock Souverain.
In 1912, a former pharmacist, Adolphe Neiger, opened a brewery in this building (already at least 60 years old) specializing in German beers and called it Bavaria. But what happened inside was special. In 1919, the fledgling League of Nations held its regular meetings at the Salle de la Réformation, just a short walk from the Bavaria. Without anywhere else to drink, the brasserie was the stamm (a Swiss term for a regular hang out for a group) for some of the most influential people in the world. In 1942, the brasserie took on the aesthetic you see here, with dark oak paneling and mirrors, now a historically protected decor according to the city of Geneva. Exactly a century after the early days of the League of Nations, in March 2019, François-Paul Journe closed the restaurant for major restorations before reopening under the helm of the man below, Chef Dominique Gauthier.
After eating at Le Restaurant twice now (once for lunch, once for dinner), I can tell you that Chef Gauthier is a genius. For 30 years, Gauthier was culinary director of Le Chat Botté at the Beau-Rivage, where he held a Michelin star. At F.P. Journe, his dinner tasting menu (a bit more substantial than the “Elégante” menu, we picked the “Souverain” – and in hindsight, the “Astronomic” would have been too much food) was extraordinary.
After a few appetizers, I had a zucchini flower from Pierre Gallay stuffed with eggplant and burrata and a buttery, tender poultry. Then we finished off with Soufflé flambé with two chartreuses. Meanwhile, you could have also gotten François-Paul’s favorites by starting with an egg from the Lignon farm prepared soft and crispy, with mushroom and coffee (caviar costs CHF 70 extra) and taking beef from Simmental with Madagascar wild pepper and grilled shallots. It’s no wonder Le Restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in its first year of operation. And, if you pay attention to the wrists of the staff, you’ll notice a red-dialed watch.
The idea of the F.P. Journe Élégante “Le Restaurant” started as a staff watch for employees to wear during shifts. No, you can’t sign up to bus tables and expect you’re going to get a free Élégante to keep after you quit two weeks later. Even if a staff watch was as far as the idea went, it would have been a fun one. But just as the Bavaria became the stamm for the Société des Nations, F.P. Journe Le Restaurant has become the stamm for clients of the brand and the watch world at large. Last time I was there for dinner, I saw a few collectors and even major secondary market dealers having dinner with friends and clients – and those are just the faces I recognized. So you know the Élégante “Le Restaurant” would have never been able to remain a staff watch. People would have clamored to buy them off the waiters’ wrists. So yes, it became possible to buy this watch, but there’s a catch.
More than just a red-dialed Élégante, the dial no longer reads the standard “Invenit et Fecit” for “invented and made” but instead says “Le Restaurant.” That alone makes it a fun novelty. The brand is no stranger to red-dialed watches. In the past, the brand has made an extremely limited, on-request version of the Centigraphe Souveraine F, also known as the “Formula Jean Todt” edition, for the Ferrari and Formula 1 legend who was an early friend and supporter of Journe. There have been others, like the unique Vagabondage 1 that belonged to Michael Schumacher, but this dial is slightly different than the color-matched Rosso Corsa seen below.
Instead, the watch reads as a more matte red – not quite burgundy but trending more that direction than what you’d see on a F40. The strap also matches and gives it a very sporty and casual look, as well as one that works well for a hot, sweaty, and often slightly messy environment like a kitchen. But it’s also common for people to swap the straps (and the Titalyt deployants) of their Élégantes to fit the season or their mood, so a strap a watch does not make (in this case at least).
Otherwise it’s very much the same as a 48mm Titalyt Élégante, a watch that could derisively be called “just a quartz watch.” But, with a wait list that’s quoted to be over 10 years long despite the brand making approximately 500 of the various Élégantes each year, the Élégante is so much more than “just a quartz watch.”
Despite the fact that the brand doesn’t put “Swiss made” on any of their watches, the Élégante fits the parameters. In fact, I was surprised to find out a few years ago that the watch’s quartz movement was also made in Switzerland. Theoretically, it could have been easily (or maybe not so easily) outsourced to some far-flung country that’s known for electronics. The idea behind the watch is simple despite its complexity in execution. A rotating sensor in the watch can tell if you stop wearing the watch for 35 minutes. The hands will then stop in place while the internal memory keeps track of the time. Pick the watch up and the weight moves, which sends a signal to drive the motor and reposition the hands to the right time, moving along the shortest path. The battery will last eight to 10 years if worn daily or 18 years if it’s in standby mode.
The weight for the Élégante’s “sleep” mode.
The last party trick of the Élégante remains the same: the luminous dial. Despite the bright red color of the dial, if you shine a UV light on the watch, you’ll see the in-house dial shines brightly with luminous material, much more evenly and less mottled than any other dial of its kind that I’ve ever seen. That fact is a massive point of pride for F.P. Journe’s “lume team,” which operates a kind of Skunk Works laboratory in the brand’s Les Cadraniers workshop. The work they do for other brands (ones you’d know but I can’t mention) is fascinating as well, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.
But here’s the catch of the day – er, I mean of buying the watch – and why I love this watch and the story so much. Never content to do something straightforward, François-Paul decided that the watch should be available to VIP customers, but not necessarily VIPs of the brand F.P. Journe. No, if you want to buy this new Élégante, there’s one person you’ll have to cozy up to over a few glasses of wine and (more than) a few great meals: Chef Dominique Gauthier. All allocations went through him for VIP clients of F.P. Journe Le Restaurant, with final approval from François-Paul Journe himself. The price and number of watches being made was not disclosed. I say this all in past tense because the watches were all allocated and delivered (without announcement) in late October ahead of the restaurant’s first anniversary.
Were there exceptions to the restaurant VIP rule? Probably, but hopefully very few. As long as I dug into this fun story, I was told that this watch is for supporters of the restaurant, which means that the concentration of clients getting the new Élégante Le Restaurant should be largely in Geneva or among people who travel there frequently for business. And I think that’s totally fair.
A few weeks ago I hosted a talk at the F.P.Journe boutique in SoHo to a number of people who had very little exposure to F.P. Journe as a brand. A lot of people who can afford F.P. Journe are used to the idea that if you have enough money, you can get whatever you like. F.P. Journe is different. They’re no longer taking names for their Chronometre Bleu because demand has gotten so high. You’ll also have trouble getting on the list for the Élégante, their most affordable watch. And that’s totally okay for me. If you just want a watch and can buy it on the secondary market, go for it. A watch like this is about the story – the bottles of wine and jokes told over dinner, the friendships made, and the chance to finally get a fun watch. If you want a souvenir that money can buy, can I interest you in a set of six steak knives with discarded parts from F.P. Journe movements? Because of the high cost making the parts in the first place (plus the knife maker’s cost) even these don’t come cheap, but one client has already ordered 24 knives for their home. The price for those: a wild CHF 4,100 per set.
Hodinkee