Luxury watchmaker F P Journe’s first ever collection for women has won a prestigious award within a year of its launch.

Launched in January, the Elegante collection was voted Ladies Watch of the Year 2014 at the Montre de l’Année awards in Geneva, Switzerland.

Established in 1994, by Montres Passion magazine its publisher Ringier media group, the annual awards honour excellence in watchmaking.

The award was presented to F P Journe during a ceremony at the InterContinental hotel in Geneva.

Elegante boasts a revolutionary concept: the watch offers the comfort and performance of an electro-mechanical watch providing 10 years of life when worn and up to 18 years in standby mode.

While the watch is motionless, it stops after 30 minutes in order to save energy. When the Elegante is worn again, it automatically sets itself to the current time, taking the shortest path for the purpose of energy conservation.

Its other novelty is its entirely luminescent dial providing the utmost visibility in the dark, with the hands indicating the hours as in a shadow theatre.

“L’élégante features the only electro-mechanical movement conceived and created for the luxury market and offering a true vision of luxury,” a spokesman for the Geneva manufacture says.

As one of the oldest leading trade magazines on the market, Montres Passion has been published for over 19 years. Published twice a year with a total circulation of 110,000 copies in French and German, it is Switzerland's most widely read watch industry magazine.

F P Journe was recently in the news in the UAE when one of its special watches sold for $120,000 at a Christie’s auction of watches in Dubai held on October 22.

The F P Journe Chronomètre Bleu Byblos with Eastern Arabic numerals was offered by Lebanese jeweller Claude Sfeir, who donated the proceeds of the sale to the Rashid Centre for disabled in Dubai on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.

The watch, which is one of a limited edition of 99, was won by a collector and philanthropist who submitted his bids by phone.

The special edition was unveiled in 2013 to mark the launch of the brand’s 10th boutique in Beirut, Lebanon and was named after the city of Byblos, located on the Lebanese coast, just a few kilometers north of the capital city.