FP Journe Vagabondage II, Platinum

No one remembers who comes in second. That was the fundamental problem facing FP Journe’s first attempts at the digital time display, the Vagabondage series, in the wake of the Zeitwerk. However, by third go, FP Journe’s manic obsession had yielded his own first, running digital seconds. Despite that massive and somewhat insane accomplishment, it is the prior Vagabondage II which I have always found the most beautiful of the three.

Vagabondage history is about as insane as the watches. A Parisian client, rumored to be Jean Aube, asked FPJ for a very classic watch, ‘like what AL Breguet might make today’, but with vagabond or wandering hours. After the client agreed to a series, the first Vagabondage was born in just 6 months for a charity Antiquorum auction. So many clients wanted more than a small series of 69 examples was made. 69, because one client wanted number 69, sadly nothing to do with the Bondage name. The Vagabondage II followed shortly after in 2010 with digital hours and minutes on a ‘time bridge’ integrated with petite seconds, powered through a remontoir now. Interestingly, a friend of ours recent pointed out that it’s just the Zeitwerk and II which have a time bridge. There also aren’t many FP Journe watches without his name anywhere on the dial. The Vagabondage series simply have too much going on to give up the real estate.

Retail in 2010 was 68K USD. Things have, shall we say progressed, since then. Recent auction results all press north of 200K USD for the II. There isn’t as much separation in terms of value between the I, II, and III as you might expect, they all group within 100K of each other with a huge variance because some metals are lesser produced. If you look hard, you’ll even find a diamond-set case II which was advertised at 850K last year. The Vagabondage is a fascinating offshoot of FPJ, a trailblazing piece in a few ways. It’s hard to imagine coming up with the I in 6 months. It’s harder still to make a world first running digital seconds. Further though, it’s indicative of FPJ’s ability to push past hardship and create what he sees in his mind’s eye. It was second, then it was first, and now it’s just a beautiful reminder of how great independent thinking can be. TL;DR, it’s basically a Zeitwerk on cocaine.

This platinum example looks fantastic. The case is full and lovely. The clasp is the super sick early deployant on these as well. The watch has its full set and all the works. It looks fantastic.