F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain Ref. TN Souveraine Rose Gold Salmon Dial

The Tourbillon Souverain is the watch F.P. Journe launched his own name with, in 1999, offered by subscription to twenty buyers. It is the first model of the Souveraine collection and the reference against which the rest of the catalogue was built. The 2004 generation added deadbeat seconds, stepping the seconds hand once a second so that it lands on each marker rather than crossing it, and that same year F.P. Journe moved his mainplate from rhodium-coated brass to 18K rose gold. A Tourbillon Souverain's movement metal therefore follows its production year rather than its reference code.

The case is rose gold, measuring 40 mm across and standing 9.9 mm deep, on a rose gold bracelet. The dial is rose gold worked against whitened guilloché silver, and the hands are blued steel, so the case, the bracelet and the dial plate all read warm and the blue of the hands is the only contrast.

The watch is a tourbillon with hours, minutes and a power reserve indication, and is manually wound. The tourbillon is visible through an opening in the dial rather than being hidden behind it.

F.P. Journe's text for this row names the case metal only and does not mention the bracelet, which is also true of its showing twin. The two are separated by their photographs and by F.P. Journe's own filenames: the twin is Tourbillon-CuirOr-G.png, where cuir is leather, and shows a black leather strap, while this row is Tourbillon-Or-G.png and shows a rose gold bracelet.

Because the reference spans the 2004 change of mainplate metal, two Tourbillon Souverains carrying the same reference code can have movements in different metals, and the production year rather than the code is what establishes which.