François-Paul Journe. He is one of only a handful of watchmakers throughout the world who still makes bespoke timepieces, that is to say: entirely made by himself in his workshop, each watch being individually designed for the client and made to order. François Paul Journe was born in Marseille in March 1957. He entered watchmaking school at the age of 14 and two years later moved to Paris to continue his studies, where he obtained his diploma within two years. During his studies, he worked with his uncle Michel Journe, a specialist in the restoration of antique clocks and watches. Over the next eight years, he was able to work on and to study objects dating from the very beginnings of mechanical horology to the present day. In 1985, he decided to open his own workshop in the rue de Verneuil in Paris, and to begin to make complicated watches of his own design for several international collectors. He joined the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants, A.H.C.I. (Horological Academy of Independent Creators) in 1986 and began exhibiting regularly at the International Clock and Watch Fair of Basel. Only two years after acheiving professional independence, he received the honors of the Bleustein Blanchet Fondation, created in 1960 to foster and reward outstanding achievement in the professional world. He also received the prestigious Laureate Prize of the Fondation de la Vocation. In 1989, he was honored by the Spanish Horological Academy which awarded him the Balancier d?or prize for his body of work. That same year, with a small group of colleagues, he created a company, Technique Horlogères Appliquées S.A. (T.H.A.) in Switzerland, which specialized in the development and manufacturing of complex and innovative products, most of which were conceived by François Paul Journe for several famous brands. Established since then in Geneva, he created the company Montres Journe S.A., located rue des Maraîchers 5. Journe has developed and manufactured complex and innovative products under his own name as well for many major companies, among them Piaget (the Grande Sonnerie), Cartier (Mystery clocks and watches), Asprey, Breguet, and Corum. Apart from the complex wristwatches and pocket watches that François Paul Journe has made in recent years, he has designed and built a sophisticated version of the Pendule Sympathique, originally for Asprey. A clock which incorporates a minute-repeating pocket watch and a tourbillon wristwatch which is wound and set by the clock! Octa Besides the unusual design of its dial, the "Octa" also incorporates a technical feat: a large and more stable balance with free-sprung balancespring and 4 timing weights to deliver chronometer precision performance over the full period of 120 hours. After this period the watch - if unwound - will still run for one or two days, but with timekeeping at a lower rate of precision due to the loss of amplitude, until the mainspring is wound up again. Power will be fully restored after only 3 hours of wearing the watch, due to a highly efficient bi-directional winding system. This, in combination with the large and easy-to-read date, makes the "Octa" an especially practical timepiece for daily wear. And of course, case, dial and movement are executed with impeccable finish and are superbly decorated.