Blue is the boutique dial, and applied numerals are the other half of what makes this execution different. The standard Automatique Lune carries printed figures on a whitened silver dial; this one carries 5N gold numerals raised off a blue guilloche silver surface, and the change from printing to applique alters the whole face. It is sold only through the boutiques and espaces, never through agents, which keeps the numbers low without any edition being declared. Rose gold is the case metal here, so the applied numerals match the case rather than contrasting with it, and the blue is the only thing on the watch that is not warm. The watch underneath is the current moon phase, and nothing about the mechanism differs from the catalogue version.
An 18K 6N gold case at 40 or 42 mm, 10.7 mm deep, polished, with the knurled silk-rope crown the reference uses. The dial is solid silver, guilloche worked and then finished blue rather than whitened, so the Clous de Paris pattern in the center reads as depth under a color instead of as texture on a pale ground. That is the difference between a blue Journe dial and a blue dial from most other makers: the pattern is cut before the color goes on. The numerals are applied 5N gold, raised above the surface and catching light from their edges, which is where the boutique execution separates itself most obviously from the printed version. The date aperture sits at the top, wide enough for two discs, and the moon opens low on the left on a sapphire disc that floats above the background. Small seconds at half past four. Hands are steel, teardrop shaped, and they have to work harder against blue than against silver, which is why the execution reads more graphic than the standard one. Both case sizes carry the same dial, and straps are the usual fitting, though the gold bracelet was offered here as well. Everything else about the case follows the standard reference, which is deliberate; the boutique versions differ on the dial and nowhere else.
Underneath the dial nothing was changed for the boutiques, which is the standing rule for these executions. The base is the automatic Octa, in production since 2001, wound by a 22K gold rotor mounted off to one side and turning in one direction only through a self-locking ball bearing arrangement, so that the movement of a wrist during an ordinary day is enough to keep it going. Because the rotor is off center rather than over the middle, most of the movement is visible through the sapphire back rather than hidden behind a disc. On the dial the date is built from two discs and jumps instantly at midnight, the moon advances one step at the same moment, and the small seconds turn continuously below the center. Setting is done entirely from the crown, in different positions for the time, the date and the moon, with nothing hidden in the lugs and no pushers on the band. That constraint is why the watch can be handled without instructions and why the case sides stay unbroken. The moon is the only indication that will ever drift far enough to need thought, and that takes years; everything else is a matter of wearing the watch. A watch worn three or four days a week will not stop, and one left for two weeks will need the date and the moon reset together, which takes under a minute from the crown.
Boutique editions began in 2007, when Journe opened enough of his own shops to need something they could sell that the retail network could not. The first were black dials in red gold cases; the Black Label followed with platinum and a dark dial; the Nacre pieces with mother of pearl arrived in 2012. Blue dials with applied numerals belong to the same program and follow the same logic, which is that the mechanism is fixed and the dial is where the house can differentiate. Journe owns his dial factory, which is why this is possible at all and why so many of the boutique variations across the catalogue are dial variations rather than mechanical ones. Within the Automatique Lune's own history the blue execution is one of the few options offered against the standard silvered dial, and it exists in both case metals. The blue is not a limited edition and has no announced number attached, which means the population is a function of how many shops there are. That is a harder thing to research than an edition size, and it is one reason the boutique dials are chased. The other reason is simpler. A dial that can only be bought in one place is a dial most buyers never see in person, and the ones who do tend to be the people already inside the system rather than the people shopping it.
The blue and gold combination is the most decorative execution of a watch that is otherwise fairly restrained, and that is either the attraction or the objection. Applied numerals give the dial a physical quality that photographs poorly and reads well in person, which is a familiar pattern with this house. Against rose gold the blue is the only cool element present, so the watch has more visual tension than the silvered version and less than the platinum blue. Buying one means going to a boutique, since it is not distributed any other way, and that filters the audience before anything else does. Both sizes are offered and the 42 mm carries the blue better simply because there is more of it. As a current reference the questions are availability and specification rather than condition. Anyone who has only seen the silvered version should look at this one before deciding, because they do not read as the same watch.
