Red gold changes the Vagabondage III more than a metal change usually does, because the case is the largest uninterrupted surface on the watch and there is almost no dial to compete with it. The model is the one that introduced digital jumping seconds to wristwatches, displayed through an aperture alongside a digital jumping hour, with only the minutes shown by a hand. This is the 18K 6N gold version, in the flat tortue case the series has carried since 2004. It has been sold out for years. Against the platinum version it reads warmer and slightly less severe, which suits a watch that is already unusual enough.
Measuring 45.2 by 37.5 mm, the tortue case is longer than it is broad, with the long axis running up the arm and the sides curving down toward the strap. Gold in the 6N alloy is warmer than the alloys used elsewhere in the industry and it is the metal Journe uses for almost everything he does not build in platinum. The dial is smoked sapphire and the apertures are cut in white gold, which sets a cool metal against a warm case and is the one deliberate contrast on the whole watch. Steel elements are screwed to the outer ring where the minutes are read. Behind the sapphire the movement is visible in outline, darkened by the tint, so what the wearer sees is a set of numerals apparently floating over a mechanism rather than sitting on a plate. The strap and buckle are the only other exterior components and both are deliberately plain, since anything decorative would compete with a case this shaped. Lug width is narrow relative to the case, which throws the proportions forward and is part of why the watch photographs oddly and wears well. There is no branding on the front of the watch. Everything identifying it sits on the movement side, which is consistent with a series that was never given collection markings in the first place. The result is a watch that gives almost nothing away from across a room.
Two discs and a hand do all the work. The seconds disc advances one step every second, driven by a constant force device that releases at exactly that interval, and the hour disc steps forward once every sixty minutes from the same source. The minutes are read from a hand travelling the outer ring, which is the only continuous motion on the watch. Displaying time this way is harder than displaying it conventionally, because a jumping indication has to be driven rather than merely turned, and the energy has to come from somewhere without disturbing the rate. The remontoir supplies it. Journe has used the same principle since his first tourbillon in 1991, but never at anything like this rate, and the Vagabondage III is the only watch in the collection where the constant force device is doing something visible. Everywhere else in the collection the remontoir is a rate device that the owner never sees working. Here it announces itself once a second, which turns an engineering solution into the main thing the watch does. That inversion is what separates the Vagabondage III from the rest of the range, since a Chronometre Souverain and this watch share a philosophy and look nothing alike. The movement is hand wound and visible through the back, laid out so the constant force assembly can be identified without a guide, which is not true of most watches carrying one.
Nothing about the Vagabondage series follows the rest of the house's logic. There is no reference in the usual sense, no collection identity, and no continuity of production; each of the three appeared once, in a short run across two metals, and then stopped. The first in 2004 used wandering hours and hid a tourbillon behind the dial. The second in 2010 dropped hands entirely. The third in 2017 pushed the digital idea to its limit. Journe has described the case shape as coming from his own early pocket watch work, which places the series closer to his personal history than to the commercial collection. The gold versions have generally been produced in slightly smaller numbers than the platinum ones. How these were distributed is part of the story as well. The Vagabondage watches were offered to existing clients rather than placed with retailers, which means the original owners were people the house already knew and the pieces entered the market slowly and individually afterwards. That has kept the population stable and traceable to a degree that is unusual, since almost every example has a known first owner. It also means condition across surviving pieces is generally good, because watches sold that way tend to be bought by people who understand what they are and treat them accordingly.
This appeals to a buyer who wants the series but not the coldness of platinum. Warm gold against a smoked sapphire face and white gold apertures is a specific combination, and it makes the watch read as an object rather than as an instrument, which is closer to what the Vagabondage was always about. The weight is lower than the platinum version and the wearing experience is noticeably different. As a discontinued limited series the questions are provenance, papers and the condition of the sapphire, which shows scratches more readily than a metal dial would. The jumping displays should both be observed running before any purchase, since the whole value of the watch sits in whether they step cleanly. A hand set with the movement running is worth requesting as well, because the minute hand and the two discs have to remain in agreement and a watch that has been mishandled will show the disagreement immediately. Anything that looks approximate is a service matter rather than a quirk.
