F.P. Journe Octa Automatique Réserve Ref. AR Octa Platinum White Dial

The Automatique Réserve is where the Octa family started, in 2001, and it introduced the layout every later model in the line inherited: an off-center hours and minutes subdial, a large date, and everything arranged asymmetrically rather than around a center. Nobody else was building automatic watches that looked like this at the time, and very few have tried since. It is the reference that turned a one man workshop into a manufacture with a house style.

The platinum case measures 40 mm. The dial is solid white gold, with the numerals turned into the metal by a diamond tool rather than printed or applied, and a small seconds register at the lower right. Platinum and a white gold face is the coolest reading of the model, and the version that reads most like an instrument. Solid gold under the numerals is what gives the surface its weight.