How F.P. Journe Built an Ardent Collector Community Around Storytelling

General manager Pierre Halimi stopped by House of Robb Miami to explain how the Swiss watch company transcends timekeeping.

During a conversation at House of Robb in Miami, Pierre Halimi, general manager of F.P. Journe North America, challenged the most basic assumption about watches: that they exist primarily to tell time. For Journe, he explained, the function is secondary, and the real value lies in the ideas, craftsmanship, and emotional weight behind each piece.

“The watch has nothing to do with just telling time,” Halimi told Robb Report‘s deputy editor Paige Reddinger. “It has to be a reflection of you.” Instead of a waitlist, the brand keeps a “wishlist”—a system designed to match watches with the right collectors rather than whoever happens to be next in line. “We’re always looking for the best collector possible.”

The path to ownership is slow, intentional, and reserved for those willing to learn. “In New York, the next appointment is February,” he said. The boutique itself is arranged like a living room, with a bar and library but no display cases in sight—an environment meant to encourage conversation rather than transaction. Both first-time and seasoned collectors must sit with the team and understand the philosophy before anything else.

Halimi illustrated the idea by referencing Maurizio Cattelan’s much-debated banana taped to a gallery wall. “A banana is 27 cents,” he said. “So how come a banana that’s 27 cents becomes a banana that reached $5 or $6 million? The difference is the story, the context.” The same logic, he noted, applies to watches. “We’re not selling time. Time is free everywhere.”