Jump Hour, a dive into Art Deco Timepieces

The jumping hour watch, also often named in French “montre à guichet”, may be considered as one of the most inventive complication of the 19th century and early 20th century, from a mechanical but also design point of view.

The first example found of a jumping hour timepiece is actually pocket watch created by the French watchmaker Antoine Blondeau around 1830 for King Louis Philippe I. The absence of hands to show the time replaced by a window in the dial was at that time revolutionary.

This complication was later adapted to a wristwatch but not before 1920s and the beginning of the Art Deco Period. It was actually Audemars Piguet released in 1921 the first wristwatch featuring this complication, a daring bet at that time.

A few years later, in 1928, the Cartier House also got seduced by this design and adapted it to its most iconic model, the Tank. In the 1990s, to celebrate the 150th Birthday of the brand and pay tribute to its rich history, Cartier released a couple version of the historic “Tank à Guichet “ in gold and also platinum which have today become highly collectable.

Audemars Piguet
A rare selection of three jump hour wristwatches
The lefthand piece from 1929, the middle and righthand pieces from 1996
© Christie’s

Beside its unique movement, which I will get in more details a bit later, what definitely separates the jumping hour wristwatch from other timepieces is its unusual design. A simple - usually rectangular - case often in chrome/nickel but also sometimes in precious metal feature three small windows where the hours, minutes and seconds appear. In this way, checking the hour can be done in just a glance by its wearer with high accuracy.

Cartier
A rare selection of three Jump Hour Wristwatches in Pink Gold and Platinium
© Christie’s

As for the Jump Hour movement, it doesn’t rely on a typical face with hands indicating the time but instead on an aperture displaying the hour turning on a disc. After 60 minutes pass, also sliding on a disc, the hour jumps instantaneously to the other one thanks to a release of energy within the watch. This yet simple but ingenuous mechanism is made only possible thanks a complex coordination and arrangement of springs, gears and levers powers.

Jump Hour watches have become quite uncommon in today’s the watch world, even though the most famous watch brands - such Cartier, Audemars Piguet, Rolex - have experienced this complication in the past. Surprisingly branded examples of these jump hour time pieces reach very high prices, hunted and collected as true museum pieces while unbranded pieces which at the end are usually very similar from a design and also movement point of view to the branded ones tend to be much cheaper and sometimes overlooked.

The absence of traditional hands to indicate the time gives to this design a real touch of novelty and modernism that is still accurate and even futuristic nearly 100 years after its creation, reminding us of today’s digital watches.

Some pieces released in the 1930s, even feature colorful lacquer panel on the case that could remind us of the silver the Art Deco cigarette cases featuring similar patterns.