The /99R suffix indicates that the case was ordered in 1999, a year before the Résonance entered official production, while 022 identifies it as the earliest commercially numbered example. Courtesy Phillips

Phillips has announced the first major lot for its Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV: a pre-production F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance bearing the serial number 022/99R. The watch will be offered by Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo on November 7 and 8 at the Hotel President in Geneva. Fresh to the market from its original owner after 27 years, it carries an estimate of CHF 500,000-1,000,000.

The November sales in Geneva are among the most important dates on the annual watch-auction calendar, bringing together major consignments at Phillips, as well as Christie's and Sotheby's. Phillips’ semiannual Geneva auction is typically a centerpiece of the season, and announcing an early Résonance as its first major lot puts F.P. Journe, now firmly established among the auction market’s leading names, at the center of this fall’s sales from the outset.

Why the Chronomètre à Résonance matters

Officially introduced in 2000, the Chronomètre à Résonance was the first wristwatch designed to use resonance as part of its timekeeping. In simple terms, Journe built the watch with two separate timekeeping systems positioned close together inside the same movement. The tiny vibrations produced by each can cause the two balance wheels to settle into the same rhythm, theoretically helping the watch maintain more consistent time. Both systems are displayed separately on the dial and can be adjusted independently.

Journe’s achievement was adapting a principle previously explored in clocks and pocket watches for use in a wristwatch. More than 25 years later, the Résonance remains one of his defining creations and one of the watches most closely associated with the rise of modern independent watchmaking.

An estimate of CHF 500,000-1,000,000 looks conservative next to recent Souscription results, leaving the market to decide where this one ranks. Courtesy Phillips

The earliest commercially numbered Résonance

The /99R suffix indicates that the case was ordered in 1999, a year before the Résonance entered official production, while 022 identifies it as the earliest commercially numbered example. Journe famously used a souscription, or subscription, model to finance his then-fledgling manufacture, with early collectors placing deposits on his first tourbillon before the watches existed.

Those supporters were later offered the first 20 Résonance watches, numbered 001 through 020 and now known as the Résonance Souscription series. Journe retained 021 as a presentation piece for clients and retailers, making 022 the first number available to a buyer outside that original group.

Phillips describes 022/99R as a pre-production watch because it predates the Résonance’s official 2000 launch. It was nonetheless a completed watch sold to a client and, notably, the first commercially numbered example offered outside Journe’s original circle of supporters. According to Phillips, the original owner chose the number because it matched his birth date, acquired the watch in person in 1999 and has held it ever since. That places the watch within an estimated group of just 10 pre-production examples, predating the better-known Souscription and Pre-Souscription watches that have surfaced at auction in recent years. It also has the features collectors look for in early Journe watches, including a 38mm platinum case, a shiny pink-gold dial with silver-toned subdials and a brass movement.

Phillips moved more than $23 million in Résonance watches this spring, setting a high bar for what pre-production examples might command. Courtesy Phillips

F.P. Journe’s rise at auction

Over the past decade, early F.P. Journe watches have moved from a relatively narrow collecting category to the top end of the market. Attention has centered especially on brass-movement watches, subscription pieces, unusual dials and examples connected to Journe’s first clients.

Phillips has arguably played a major role in that rise. In the 2026 spring season alone, the house sold three important Résonance watches for a combined total of more than $23 million: Souscription No. 007 for $13.9 million (which set a new auction record), Souscription No. 18 for $6.3 million and a rare Pisa limited edition for $3 million.

The 022/99R occupies a different place in the model’s history. Its estimate is notably restrained next to the 2026 spring results, though estimates are not predictions, and bidders will ultimately determine how a rarely seen pre-production example ranks against the better-known Souscription series.

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