Centigraphe Souverain

Caracteristics

Description

Centigraphe Souverain

360,000 km/h at your fingertips

The art to convert 6km/h in 360.000km/h

The hand-wound movement measures elapsed times from one hundredth of a second to 10 minutes on three dials, each with a time scale in red and a tachometer scale in black.

The tachometer scales convert times into speeds ranging from 6 km/h — the walking pace — to 360,000 km/h, well above the escape velocity of a rocket going into low-level orbit.

The indications

The flying-seconds hand at 10 o’clock goes around the dial in one second on a scale marked in hundredths of a second, making it theoretically possible to time an object moving at 360,000 km/h, or approximately 1/3000ths of the speed of light.

On the dial at 2 o’clock, the hand goes in 20 seconds on a time scale divided in seconds. The outer tachometer scale shows the speed against odd numbers of seconds — 1, 3, 5, etc. — while the inner scale corresponds to the even numbers of seconds.

The third dial, at 6 o’clock, where the hand goes around in 10 minutes, has a similar tachometer scale with speeds corresponding to 20-second markers. Thus a kilometre travelled in three minutes 40 seconds represents a speed of 16.4 km/h (close to one decimal).

Ergonomic chronograph control

The chronograph is started, stopped and zeroed by a rocker at 2 o’clock in the caseband instead  of the usual buttons on either side of the crown — an ergonomic solution that has been granted a patent.  The rocker turns a column-wheel that activates the levers in the start, stop and zero sequence in a conventional way.

Patented chronograph mechanism

A second patent has been granted for the ingenious configuration of the mechanism, which effectively isolates the chronograph from the timekeeping function. This means the amplitude of the balance is unaffected when the chronograph is running.

This is achieved by using a single mainspring that unwinds at both ends, driving the chronograph trains from the barrel arbor, and the going train of the movement from the barrel itself. (Similar patented system as for the mainspring used in the Sonnerie Souveraine clockwatch).

The 1-second counter and the 20-seconds counter are driven by two wheel-trains departing in either direction from a single intermediate wheel driven by the barrel arbor.

A separate train of wheels, also driven by the barrel arbor, drives the 10-minutes chronograph hand.

Flying seconds

The high-speed, flying seconds, released by the escapement of the watch, jumps around the dial  6 times a second. When the chronograph is activated, the high-speed flying seconds is disconnected from the escapement and jumps around the dial in increments of 1/16th of a second. The mainspring unwinds from both its inner and outer ends which enables the going train (timekeeping) to be powered traditionally from the mainspring barrel, and the chronograph function to take its power from the (central) barrel arbor. This isolates the operation of the chronograph from the timekeeping function so that there is virtually no drop in balance amplitude when the chronograph is activated.

One ingenious feature of the flying-seconds hand is that it can be stopped anywhere along its one-second journey around its dial, even between two 100th-second divisions, enabling an approximate fractional reading.

This is done by vertically disengaging the pinion of the flying seconds from the escapement. A device converting lateral movement into vertical movement is operating as a brake.

Back to zero

The 20-seconds hand and the 10-minutes hand are zeroed by hammer levers acting on snail cams. This eliminates the play inherent in the conventional heart-pieces while ensuring that the two hands return to zero anti-clockwise. The flying-seconds hand is stopped at zero by a beak protruding from its pinion coming against a lever.

Maintaining power and power reserve

Maintaining power ensures that the watch can be wound without interrupting the driving power to the movement or running chronograph.

The mainspring delivers at least 100 hours of power reserve without the chronograph, and around 24 hours with the chronograph running.

The Centigraphe contributes to the Medical Research of the ICM

In buying the Centigraphe, you are also contributing to the medical research of the ICM – Institute of Brain and Spinal Cord in Paris- to help fight against brain and spinal cord diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson, Multiple Sclerosis, …

François-Paul Journe has committed, next to Professor Gérard Saillant, Luc Besson, Jean Réno, Jean Todt, Michelle Yeoh and Michael Schumacher, amongst others, to donate 30% of the profit of the sale of each Centigraphe to the ICM.