Jump Hour Watches: Rare Executions Of Watchmaking’s Theme Of The Year
7 min read
While I have no problem with reading time by means of hands, a numeric display of the non-spatial dimension is multiple folds easier. The translation of passing hours through a digital medium isn’t an instant kill of the romanticized affair of tracking time in analogue. It is the convenience and somewhat quirky appeal of a jump hour mechanism that renders it as a delectable aside to the familiar passage of time perceived by way of rotating hands.
Accepted, a jump hour can be relegated as a non-complication, with nothing gained in regards to function and practicality. However, there’s one thing that occurs as a gratifying supplement - pure mechanical complexity. And in horological terms, complexity isn’t a burden, but rather a poetic exhibit of timekeeping’s artistry.
At Watches and Wonders 2025, the aesthetic simplicity of a digital display jump hour was exhibited in fierce fervor to a favorably receptive and buoyant audience. Here are the jump hour watches that made headlines at this year’s Watches and Wonders.
Cartier Privé Tank À Guichets
Tank à Guichets renders time in a discombobulating display, limited to two petite apertures. While one is devoted to depict a slow-moving minutes disc, the other features a digital jump hour display. The resulting contraption is undeniably the most distinct expression of a Tank.
The Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets from Watches and Wonders 2025 revives a pure metallurgical oddity, speculated to be one of the rarest Cartier timepieces ever produced. Cartier Privé reinterprets this true horological rarity in four editions of which three offer a similar aesthetic but in varying metal selections (yellow gold, rose gold or platinum) and a limited-edition variant with a literal twist. The icon from the 1920s gets reinterpreted in the original crown at 12 o’clock format while the limited-edition platinum variant features the minutes aperture rotated 90-degrees counter-clockwise and shown at 4 o’clock.
The new model measures 24.8mm x 37.6mm and is a scanty 6mm in the vertical elevation, thanks to the caliber 9755 MC, Cartier’s iteration of the Piaget 430P, measuring just 2.1mm thick.
Jaeger-Lecoultre Reverso Tribute Nonantieme ‘Enamel’
At Watches and Wonders 2025, Jaeger-LeCoultre showcased a heavy leaning on the Reverso collection, consistent with its theme for the year - The 1931 Polo Club. The brand introduced a total of 9 new executions of the classic sports timepiece, from simple time-only models to the mind-numbing Reverso Hybris Artistica Calibre 179. And in between, exists the Reverso Tribute Nonantieme ‘Enamel.’ While the timepiece is ‘business as usual’ on the recto side, it’s the verso face that’s of particular interest.
The reverse side on the limited edition of 90 pieces Reverso Tribute Nonantieme ‘Enamel’ is a showcase of La Grande Maison’s perpetual pursuit of technical innovation married to timeless design and fine craftsmanship. It gets a digital hour display with the semi-jumping hour disc, driven by the Caliber Maison 826. It’s complete with a guilloché day and night indicator and a slow-moving minutes disc with the displays framed in a figure-of-eight.
In order to preserve the mainspring’s power reserve, the jump hour has a dragging feature that initiates a slow shift of the disc five minutes before the turn of the hour. Despite its slow-shifting to the next hour, this improvised jump hour does indeed offer an instantaneous jump at the end.
Bremont Terra Nova Jumping Hour Bronze And Terra Nova 40.5 Jumping Hour
The dial-less brutalist aesthetic of Bremont’s latest jumping hour duo is fit for what’s a primarily military aviation-style theme omnipresent at the brand. The overall robustness of a guichet-style inception, devoid of any brittle cap, favors war utility and thus seems fitting for a brand that leans heavily towards a combat-ready curation. At Watches and Wonders 2025, Bremont expands its Terra Nova series in line with the year’s emerging trend - the jump hour. To be precise, not one, but two jump hour watches - the Terra Nova Jumping Hour Bronze and Terra Nova 40.5 Jumping Hour.
The first model, a limited-edition of 100 pieces - Terra Nova Jumping Hour Bronze, is a 38mm timepiece crafted from a bronze-aluminum alloy, yielding a stabler material than typical bronze. The second timepiece - Terra Nova 40.5 Jumping Hour, is housed in a 40.5mm 904L stainless steel cushion-shaped Terra Nova case, similar to the former. Both watches feature a powertrain developed exclusively for Bremont by Sellita - the BC634 jumping hour caliber. While the bronze as well as steel variants feature a guichet-style display for hours and minutes, the seconds on the former are depicted in a central petite aperture while the latter has a more conventional central seconds hand.
After a not so favorable debut at last year’s Watches and Wonders, Bremont’s output at this year’s event is a welcome departure from the failures of the past. While last year was a hit and miss for Bremont, 2025 is turning out to be a bit more hit than miss.
Gerald Charles Maestro GC39 25th Anniversary Edition
The idiosyncratic yet identifiable Maestro aesthetic is a Gérald Genta signature. It forms a formidable leading entity in the two-part collection at the Maison Gerald Charles. At the brand’s 25th anniversary, they offer a jump hour execution of the model - the Maestro GC39 25th Anniversary Edition. This 100-piece anniversary edition features a stepped case construction inspired by Roman Baroque architecture. Its dial is of particular interest with the central part crafted from lapis lazuli. From it, emanates a ray-like pattern achieved with a proprietary engraving technique - meta-guillochage. A blued-steel arc, which frames the entire central part, features the aperture displaying the jump hours.
As a quirky aside to its already-idiosyncratic tracking of hours, the hour disc advances in an anti-clockwise direction. Powered by the Caliber 4.0, which gets the in-house and patented jumping hours module, this Grade 5 titanium timepiece achieves an autonomy of 50 hours and an impressive water resistance rating of 100 meters.
Hautlence Linear Series 3 Red
While a retro-futuristic theme dominates at Hautlence, there occurs a genuine contemporary rarity in the brand’s catalog. The Linear Series 3 Red is the modern interpretation of the brand’s signature TV-shaped case. The timepiece offers a linear retrograde jumping hour display, the product’s true USP, in combination with a one-minute flying tourbillon. This iconic form watch, powered by the Caliber D50 (Agenhor custom display module atop the H. Moser & Cie. HMC 804), is offered as a limited edition of 28 pieces.
Beda’a Eclipse II
Cementing the Middle East region’s impact on high horology beyond a consumerist repute, Beda’a was founded in 2016 by Qatari entrepreneur Hader Al Suwaidi. The brand, now heavily influenced by the creative direction its CEO and Chief Designer - Sohaib Maghnam, offers a quartet of collections, among which the Eclipse is a standalone round execution. The second chapter of this series is introduced as the Eclipse II. Featuring a digital jump hour display at 12 o’clock, the watch peaks in its idiosyncrasy with the crown placement at 6 o’clock. Its dial features a regulator style layout with time indications powered by the Dubois Depraz developed caliber BMJ-01.
Although not in number, the Eclipse ll is limited to an annual production volume of 100 pieces.
The Joy Of The Hour
From the simplest to the most outrageous, each of the above executions of the jump hour mechanism is sure to make you 'jump with joy’ on every hour’s passage. Now that’s a sum total of twenty-four ecstatic moments in one single day.
Another reason to fall in love with watches.
