F.P. Journe Octa Sport Watch
F.P. Journe is really pushing aluminum as its sport watch material of course. I've written in the past about not understanding why they would choose aluminum, which is a soft and easily dented metal for a super high-end luxury watch. It is very light, and I guess they like the quirk. Titanium has really usurped most aluminum use, but I think aluminum is still technically a bit lighter (just not stronger). The watch is just 53 grams in weight. According to F.P. Journe they used "high technology aluminum" (which is apparently the same used in Aeronautics).
So like fragile race cars F.P. Journe's sport watches are nice to look at with good performance but you don't want to hit things with it. The watch even has bumpers on the sides. This concept started with the first F.P. Journe sport watch which was last year's Centigraphe Sport (seen below, and priced super high). Oh, and they call their sport collection the "lineSport" collection. It does wreak of a certain disdain for English, whereby "Sport line" would actually grammatically make sense.
This good looking new watch is called the Octa Sport... lineSport. Unlike the wild chronograph mechanism of the Centigraphe, the Octa Sport is a more traditional F.P. Journe watch, but in a more sporty outfit. On the gray aluminum alloy dial you have the time, big date indicator, power reserve indicator, subsidiary seconds dial, and day/night indicator. The dial has applied Arabic hour numerals and nice lume-filled hands. It is pretty nice and the red elements do make it feel more sporty. Only problem is that this is still a fancy watch at heart and the core F.P. Journe look (that I love), just doesn't really lend itself to a sport watch style. Even if they attach a rubber strap to it and place a prominent red "S" on the dial.
A very interesting thing to note is that the Octa Sport watch has an aluminum movement. Most FP Journe watch movements are in gold. The movement is the in-house made Calibre FPJ 1300-3 automatic. It even has an aluminum rotor - but one one that also has a tungsten strip for extra weight. Power reserve for the movement is impressive at 120 hours. The movement is visible through a sapphire exhibition caseback window.
The Octa Sport watch case is a healthy (for F.P. Journe) 42mm wide. You'll notice that there are rubber bumpers on the side to protect the aluminum case. In addition to the rubber strap, there is an aluminum bracelet option - which also has rubber bumpers. Maybe FP Journe should just have a version in all black coated with vulcanized rubber? That would seem to solve the aluminum problem, and probably make the Octa Sport look more "sportive." Does anyone in the US even use that word? Look out for this delicate super-light F.P. Journe watch soon.
Octa Sport - Technical Specifications from F.P. Journe:
Movement
Automatic Calibre FPJ 1300-3
Unidirectional automatic winding
Movement in aluminum alloy
Dimensions of the movement
Overall diameter: 30.80 mm
Casing-up diameter: 30.40 mm
Overall height: 5.70 mm
Height of winding stem: 3.00 mm
Diameter of stem thread: S0.90 mm
Balance
Four adjustable inertia weights
Anachron free-sprung flat balance spring
Mobile stud holder
Free Sprung
Nivatronic laser soldered balance spring
Pinned GE stud
Frequency : 21'600 Alt/h, 3 Hz
Inertia : 10.10 mg/cm2
Angle of lift : 52°
Amplitude : 0 h dial up : > 300°
24 h dial up : > 280°
Main characteristics
Three position crown:
Winding of the watch in position 0, clock wise
Correction of date in position 1, anti clockwise
Correction of time in position 2
Instant jump calendar
Off centre winding rotor in Titanium with
Tungsten segment
Barrel with slipping spring
Escapement 15 tooth
Indications
Centered hours and minutes
Small second at 6h00
Day/Night indication at 9h00
Power reserve at 10h30
Large date at 1h00
Autonomy
120+/- 12 hours
Winding Speed on watch winder: 274 rotations / 24 hours
Decoration
Circular Côtes de Genève on bridges
Partly circular graining on baseplate
Polished screw heads with chamfered slots
Chamfered and circular grained wheels
Steel components hand polished and chamfered
Case
Aluminum alloy with rubber inserts
Diameter: 42.00mm
Total height: 11.60mm
Dial
Aluminum alloy and sapphire
Superluminova hands
Superluminova appliqué indexes
12 luminescent points
Number of parts
Movement without dial 286
Cased up with Aluminum bracelet 510
Cased up with rubber strap 354
Jewels 40
Rubber 72
Weight
Total weight 53 g
Movement alone 11 g
Sapphire glass sub dial 2 g
http://www.ablogtoread.com/f-p-journe-octa-sport-watch/
