F.P. Journe Historical Anniversary Tourbillon Replica Watch Cased in a 40 mm rose gold and guilloché silver case and visible through a hunter-style covered display-back, is a gilt-brass, parallel barrel, tourbillon movement, matching that of the pocketwatch and more at home among pocket watches of the 1800s and 1900s.

Another 2013 Anniversary… Yes, another one.  You can add F.P. Journe to the list of anniversaries this year along with Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren, Rolex, Caterham, Fiat and Tag Heuer.  The first watch Francois-Paul Journe ever made was created in 1983, and the F.P. Journe Historical Anniversary Toubillon pays homage to that watch.  Seriously, did everything good happened on a year ending in “3”?  I was also born in 1983, so I guess so.

Francois-Paul f p journe historical anniversary tourbillon replica watch graduated watchmaking school and was restoring and repairing watches and clocks in his uncle Michel’s Paris shop, when in 1977 he got an itch to create his first watch from scratch.  In an act of either insanity or bravery or both, he set out to design and build his own tourbillon.  (Seriously, a tourbillon?!? As his first watch?!?  Madness, I say!)

In 1983, after about five years of nights and weekends of creating everything himself (and I mean everything… each screw and gear, the tourbillon cage, the gold and silver case and the dial, everything), the first F.P. Journe watch was born, and it was a doozy.  It was a beautiful tourbillon pocketwatch, easily at home among the best from Audemars Piguet or Patek Philippe.

To celebrate that first, momentous watch, F.P. Journe released the F.P. Journe Historical Anniversary Tourbillon, a wristwatch inspired by the original pocketwatch.  And, it, too, is an absolute stunner.

The dial of the F.P. Journe Historical Anniversary Tourbillon (also a throw-back from first watch) is easy to read with a main hour and minute register with roman numeral indices situated above a smaller sub-seconds register with Arabic numerals. f p journe replica watches is a supremely simple dial that is elegant, functional and beautiful.

The F.P. Journe Historical Anniversary Tourbillon is exactly the type of watch I love.  It has the perfect combination of classic watchmaking style and modern ingenuity.  If I could afford the $99,000 price tag, I would definitely pick up one of the 99 numbered pieces.