The F.P. Journe Centigraphe Sport and Jean Alesi - F1 Special ....well sort of.
Mmmmm - Jean Alesi and the F.P. Journe Centigraphe Sport, a fine pairing indeed.
Jean Alesi, F1 driver, DTM driver, Le Mans Series driver and soon-to-be Indy 500 driver. The French/Sicilian was a joy to watch in F1 - he often owned the track using a combination of natural driving ability and agressive over-taking. We fondly remember him driving the John Barnard-designed Ferrari 412 T2 in the mid-nineties, with it's beautiful, big fat gold rims - a pig of a car to drive, but surely the best looking car ever to line up on the grid. Alas "Lady Luck" did not often smile upon him and he left the sport with just one Formula One World Championship win during his substantial career.
The magnificent timepiece strapped to his wrist is the F.P. Centigraphe Sport, a watch capable of splitting seconds to one hundredths in a mesmerising display of activity. With its creation, François-Paul Journe astounded the industry back in 2008, and for the "Sport" edition he swapped precious metals for ultra-light aluminium - a dent-magnet, but none-the-less, he stubbornly found a way to toughen the tricky alloy up sufficiently and the entire piece - that's the movement, the case and the bracelet are constructed entirely from aluminium, save for the addition of some rubber used for its shock absorbing properties on the case sides, the links of the bracelet and the crown. The end-result of years of development is a sports watch weighing just 55 grams.
Inside, the Calibre 1506 manual wind movement produces a generous 100 hours of power reserve and an outstanding 24 hours of power reserve with the chronograph running - ingenious design ensures that the timekeeping amplitude is unaffected when the chronograph is in use.
Later this year, in a superb partnership, the F.P. Journe branding will appear on the Judd-powered Lotus Dallara, when for the first time Jean Alesi will race in the iconic Indy 500.
Related Articles
The story of F.P. Journe - a Riveting Read.
F.P. Journe - The Man With Golden Hands.
- And F1 fans may like one of our most-read features "F1 Drivers And Their Watches".