Before we get started, we need to talk about just what a grande sonnerie is, and what it's not. A grande sonnerie is not a cartoonish complication. A grand sonnerie hasn't been taken from the highest echelons of true artisanal watchmaking to become a status symbol for anyone who can string together a few bucks. There are no movement shops selling off-the-shelf grande sonneries to fashion brands. There is no such thing as a grande sonnerie module from Dubois Depraz, and we've yet to see a Chinese grande sonnerie.

You see, in the world of high complications, the grande and petite sonnerie holds a very special place, well above even split-seconds chronographs, perpetual calendars, and certainly above the once-holy tourbillon. Consider the fact that the very first grande and petite sonnerie wristwatch was produced not in the 1940s like so many complications, but in 1992, and it took the skills of no one short of Philippe Dufour to accomplish this. It was just this past October that Patek Philippe showed its very first grande sonnerie wristwatch. There are but a small handful of watchmakers, as individuals, or as brands, capable of producing such a watch. It is that special, and François-Paul Journe launched his Sonnerie Souveraine back in 2006, by himself.