For both collectors and watchmakers chiming watches have always constituted a grail, the horological Himalaya being the Grand and Petite Sonnerie.

A Grande Sonnerie is a timepiece that automatically chimes the hours on every hour and hours and quarters on every quarter when on petite sonnerie mode the watch will only chime the passing of the quarters.
Not a watchmaker to shy away from a challenge Journe decided to climb his own Himalaya a year after he launched his brand and create his own sonnerie.

6 years and 10 patents later, the Sonnerie Souverain was presented in 2006 and was in production until 2019.

Journe states that he developed the movement keeping in mind that it should me made safe to use by an eight year old, meaning not only the watch should be easy to use but also overcome the delicacies of this type of complication hat could easily break if used improperly.

The result is an incredibly easy to use and fool proof complication. In signature F.P. Journe style time is indicated on offset dials on the left, the repeating gongs can be seen via an aperture on the dial. The power reserve is indicated at 12 o’clock. The sonnerie selection is made via the button at 4 o’clock and displayed on the lower portion of the dial: G (Grande sonnerie), S (silence), P (Petite sonnerie). The button located at 2 o’clock activates the minute repeater.

The greatest difficulty in constructing a sonnerie is to achieve full clockwatch capability from limited energy in a wristwatch without compromising the sound and reliability of the chime. In the Sonnerie Souverain, a single mainspring provides energy for 24 hours for the Grande sonnerie, the chiming functions use up close to 60% of the mainspring’s energy. In silence mode, the movement runs for 5 days.

The 408 component movement is housed in a steel case (a first for Journe at the time), a metal that amplifies the sound of the chimes and won the Aiguille d’Or (highest distinction) at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (the watchmaking equivalent of the Oscars) in 2006.

One of the most incredible masterpieces to leave the Journe ateliers, less than four were made per year and each had the name of the owner engraved on the caseback and on the movement bridge, here Gabrielle.

With the Souverain Journe is one of the very rare makers of this extraordinary complex mechanism and a must have for the collector of horological grails.