If there was any doubt that François-Paul Journe is the hottest independent watchmaker alive, he is now firmly cemented as king after this weekend’s Phillips New York: Watch Auction XIV.
His F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance “Souscription, No. 007” sold for an astonishing $13.92 million, becoming not only the most expensive watch ever sold by the maker, but the highest price achieved for any watch by an independent watchmaker and any 21st-century watch offered at a commercial auction. It hammered home at the jaw-dropping price after only nine minutes of bidding.
For reference, the previous record for an indie at auction belonged to fellow watchmaking legend Philippe Dufour when his Grande & Petite Sonnerie Wristwatch sold for $5.7 million at Christie’s in 2023. (However, before that in 2021, another Dufour Grande & Petite Sonnerie sold privately for $7.63 million at A Collected Man.)
Introduced in 2000, the Chronomètre à Résonance translated one of horology’s oldest intellectual curiosities into a serially produced wristwatch. The phenomenon of resonance had fascinated watchmakers for centuries. In the 18th century, Christiaan Huygens observed that two pendulum clocks mounted on the same support could synchronize through tiny vibrations. Abraham-Louis Breguet later explored the concept in pocket watches. Journe, however, managed something his predecessors had never achieved on this scale: adapting the principle for the wrist.
