The Sonnerie Souveraine of F.P. Journe

F.P. Journe proposes to discover a horological world premiere on its website: the binaural sound of the Sonnerie Souveraine, recorded in the anechoic chamber of the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne). A unique experience which provides a total immersion into the heart of this exceptional striking watch’s movement.

Binaural is a recording technique performed to create a three-dimensional sound. For the binaural recording of the Sonnerie Souveraine, F.P. Journe used artificial ears with microphones. In the choice of components up to the shapes and proportions, everything in this device is designed to reproduce a sound as close as possible to a human experience.

For this horological world premiere, F.P. Journe made use of the EPFL’s anechoic chamber. The EPFL is one of Switzerland’s two federal institutes of technology, and the most innovative and productive scientific institution in the world. All the walls – including the floor – of the 200 m3 anechoic chamber are entirely covered with one-metre-high glass wool dihedral, enabling optimal sound absorption.

The Sonnerie Souveraine with Grande Sonnerie and Minute Repeater is the only wristwatch of this type delivering total user security together with precision and comfort. Six years of research and development and ten patents testify to the “Invenit” and “Fecit” aspects of this work.

The privilege of a Grande Sonnerie watch is to translate time in music. The Maison Journe, which has become an expert in the mastery of the resonance striking watch, is aware of the importance of acoustic waves in the art of time measurement. It demonstrates its mastery when it comes to expressing time in sounds. The sound signal emitted by the extra-flat gongs of 3/10 of a millimetre has been treated with as much importance as the function mode of this mechanism which requires a very specific hammer strike. The Grande Sonnerie’s striking weight amounts to just 0.3 grams. This force is, to give an estimate, between 10 and 15 times less than that used to strike a classical minute repeater. However, because the acoustics work has been particularly meticulous and the technical solutions perfectly adapted to this type of complication, the Sonnerie Souveraine produces a better sound than any equivalent striking timepiece. In addition, a new selection mode via the 4 o’clock pushbutton allows you to choose between three options: Grande Sonnerie, Petite Sonnerie and Silence. The pusher at 2 o’clock activates the Minute Repeater on demand.

For its striking watches, F.P. Journe has exceptionally abandoned precious metals for its cases so as to ensure the best possible striking tones that make optimal use of the crystalline structure of steel.

October 18, 2018