Auctions: F.P. Journe Reveals Why He Paid More Than $6 Million For A Breguet Clock He Designed – To Showcase In His Upcoming Museum

François-Paul Journe would not be denied. Several other bidders were willing to pay millions for the Breguet Pendule Sympathique No. 1 at the Phillips auction in Geneva this month. But it’s unlikely they knew the 18-karat-yellow gold clock and its companion wristwatch quite as well as Journe. It was, after all, the sexagenarian Frenchman and his colleagues at Techniques Horlogères Appliquées (THA) who had been commissioned by Breguet to design and build the timepiece some 35 years before. 

Now that the object of horological history had returned to auction for the first time since 1991, Journe wanted it back. He sat in the front row on the far left of the room. Each time another bidder raised the offer in CHF 100,000 increments, Journe would gently nod his head towards the rostrum and auctioneer Aurel Bacs, indicating he would pay more.

After more than five minutes of battling, it was just Journe and a prospective buyer on the phone remaining. When he bobbled his grey mane once again to boost the price to CHF 4.5 million, the phone bidder finally relented, indicating they would go no further. As the hammer came down, Journe had agreed to pay CHF 5,505,000 including fees, making it the top lot of the auction and setting a record for the most ever paid for a modern sympathique clock.

Fortunately, it’s not the last the world will see of it. The Breguet Sympathique No. 1 will be displayed again when Journe launches the Musée F.P. Journe in Geneva, which he hopes will be ready to open its doors in about a year. The exhibition space will celebrate and show the work and career of one of the most vaunted names in independent watchmaking, whose pieces produced under his eponymous F.P. Journe brand have soared in value at auction and on the secondary market in recent years.

I designed it, and it is a major piece of 20th-century horology.

François-Paul Journe

“It is to showcase my work from 1983 to the present day, by visually explaining its connections with history and demonstrating this through antique pieces from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries,” Journe says when asked what he intends to achieve with the museum. 

The museum will be housed “within a space decorated with contemporary art related to watchmaking,” he adds. It will be in Geneva at an undisclosed location close to the Journe manufacture. Visitors will be received by appointment only.

As for why he was so determined to acquire the clock and its married wristwatch that can be docked to wind and set the minute hand, Journe says, “because I designed it, and it is a major piece of 20th-century horology.”

Journe’s assertion that he was the designer of the clock contrasts with recent comments made by Denis Flageollet, who was the Technical Director of THA at the time of the Breguet Sympathique commission.

“I personally designed and built all of the clock’s mechanical components and systems, and adjusted the gold parts to assemble the clock cabinet alongside THA’s watchmakers, Pierre-André Grimm and Vianney Halter,” Flageollet, now the creative and watchmaking force behind the De Bethune brand, told Revolution in an article published before the clock went to auction. 

Journe didn’t comment on the Revolution story and Flageollet’s version of history. 

As for his upcoming museum, the watchmaker won’t reveal what else will be exhibited at the new space until it opens. “It will be a surprise,” he says. This calls for speculation as to what Journe Museum visitors, who are lucky enough to secure an appointment, might be treated to.

Journe has been a visible figure at public auctions in Geneva in recent years, buying up many of his own pieces, including a Chronomètre Souverain, ‘Dubai Boutique’ edition with a green dial, purchased for CHF 139,700  at the same Phillips auction as the Sympathique No. 1. “I don’t acquire many of my watches for the Museum, as our collection is already abundant. When I can, I purchase for the Patrimoine [heritage or history], which is different,” he says.

Here’s what we do know about Journe’s collecting history. He has been a passionate collector of rare and often complicated steel pocket watches, as illustrated in a 312-page book about this collection by Jean-Claude Sabrier & Georges Rigot. 

The watchmaker also has many clocks and watches in his private collection, according to people close to Journe, including pieces by Breguet that would make sense as focal points for a historical perspective on his creations.

One of the most important pieces in Journe’s collection is the double-pendulum resonance regulator manufactured by French watchmaker Antide Janvier in 1780. Journe calls this wall clock a link between his Chronomètre à Résonance and the 18th-century watchmaking that inspired him. 

However, the piece sits largely hidden in a conference room at the brand’s headquarters and would be well-placed in his new museum. Other pieces, like the C.L. Detouche astronomical clock that sits as a focal point in the building’s entry or Jean-Claude Sabrier’s library in the same location, might be hard to imagine moving from their space.

“It is to showcase my work from 1983 to the present day, by visually explaining its connections with history and demonstrating this through antique pieces from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.”

François-Paul Journe

As for his own creations, the opportunity to curate a collection of his own work and historical contextual pieces will present a fascinating insight into Journe’s personal take on what he finds the best representations of his work. Specific models, like the Tourbillon Souverain and Chronomètre à Résonance, were made with a large number of movement, dial, and case variations for different clients, retailers, anniversaries, and other reasons. It’s possible we won’t see a completist’s approach to the museum but rather a more thoughtful one. 

And we don’t yet know if Journe’s upcoming museum will display the first wristwatch he ever made. He’s previously said he would never sell the timepiece that serves as his personal watch. He also still owns the first pocket watch he ever made.

Journe raised eyebrows among some ahead of the auction with an email sent to clients indicating that he wouldn’t service the ‘Sympathique No. 1’ if someone else bought it and that they would have to contact Breguet, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. After Journe won the auction, some wondered if the email might have deterred rival bidders. Journe says that wasn’t the intent.

“Some clients had asked me directly,” he says. “I felt it was my duty to inform them ahead of the sale.”

​Hodinkee 

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