Baffled, I immediately inquired as to the caliber, which turned out to be something entirely new: the Jeambrun PS 6402. If you haven’t heard of Jeambrun, I can’t blame you; I hadn’t either, and for good reason. Jeambrun was a French movement manufacturer that existed in the mid-20th century. While it appears their calibers were used by a handful of companies, such as Elgin, they didn’t last long, and little information is available on them. The PS 6402 is the product of a new company that has revived the historic, if esoteric, name, helmed by Wolbrook watches.
The follow-up question, then, logically, is how does a movement manufacture pop up overnight (seemingly) with a new caliber, let alone an automatic chronograph? And the answer is: with a little help from friends, specifically, the Chinese movement manufacturer Peacock. Having existed since 1957, Peacock is a respected and major player in the Chinese market, though less present in the US and European markets than Seagull. With that said, Atelier Wen uses a Peacock movement in their Perception line (they refer to it as the Dandong SL1588), and Peacock has recently made some waves with their Witness Tourbillon models.
As for the PS 6402, it’s a movement that was specced for Jeambrun, manufactured by Peacock, and supplied as an ebauche. The movements are then assembled, regulated, and tested in France by the newly formed Jeambrun company. Thus, allowing Jeambrun to enter the movement game with an already proven platform, avoid the immense expense of developing a caliber from scratch, add some of their own value through assembly and regulation, and, more importantly, create a new caliber with some level of French provenance. As the French indie scene is one of the strongest globally and has emphasized local assembly and manufacturing, Jeambrun is well-positioned to supply a niche market.
Aside from the who and the where, the PS 6402 also has some appealing features. It’s an automatic column-wheel chronograph with 41-jewels, hand-winding, a frequency of 28,800 bph, and a power reserve of 55-hours. A dual-register layout with elapsed minute and hour counters at three and nine, respectively, they have foregone active seconds entirely. The movement features an “Armure de France” finish, a signature design of Jeambrun’s interlocking hexagons laser-etched into the plates, as well as blued screws and a column wheel, a black-plated rotor, and a skeletonized balance bridge. Overall, it’s an attractive movement.
Zach Weiss
2026-04-06 19:00:00