In July of 2019, F.P. Journe announced a unique piece for Only Watch: the Astronomic Blue, which was the most complex watch Journe had ever created. Cased in tantalum, the Astronomic Blue featured a plethora of astronomical and other complications, including a tourbillon with remontoir, annual calendar with Zodiac indications, Equation of Time, sunrise/sunset indication,...

From Enlightenment-era escapements to Gilded Age dandies, the pursuit of thinness in watchmaking wasn’t just about design, it was about ambition, culture, and the quiet power of refinement. Someone once told me that history isn’t linear, it’s more like a web. A tangle of interconnected points that don’t always line up chronologically. Ripples echo both...