This is the most revolutionary complication made in France in the 19th century : the jumping hour. Also known as the « montre à guichet”, it is a revolution in the history of watchmaking, and a fashion that regularly returns to the collections of the most beautiful manufactures or the most prominent independent watchmakers on the market.
For several years now, these original watches have been attracting renewed interest, and some models have achieved prices comparable to those of watches with large complications.
Audemars Piguet, Cartier, Patek Philippe, Gerald Genta or Ludovic Ballouard…. Panorama of the pieces to be looked at closely for all the amateurs wishing to acquire a watch equipped with this famous mechanism.
A WATCHMAKING REVOLUTION
The first recorded watch with aperture would be a pocket watch specially made by the French watchmaker Antoine Blondeau around 1830 for King Louis Philippe I. This new system, much less fragile than a hand mechanism, is often considered a minor complication. However, jumping hour watches have inspired some unusual designs that collectors are snatching up at auction houses at a high price.
Abandoning the traditional hand in favor of a window, the opening in the dial that indicates the time, was a revolution in 1830. By abruptly changing the time by a jump every 60 minutes, the king’s watchmaker Antoine Blondeau simply made it easy to tell the time.
In the 19th century, the challenge for all watchmakers was to create watches with the most legible dial possible in order to reduce the risk of misinterpretation. At a time when access to watchmaking was suddenly democratized, the watch became an indispensable everyday object. The measurement of time is no longer reserved for a financial elite and is becoming accessible to the greatest number of people.
According to studies by the economic historian Hans Joachim Voth, the watch trade experienced a real “boom” between 1800 and 1830. If in 1800, 60% of people over 14 living in London owned a watch, this rate rose to almost 100% in 1830; and this trend seems similar in Paris (in Time and work in England, 1750-1830, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2001).
But if it became popular, the watch remained a complex object that was difficult to tame. Reading the time is perfectly commonplace in today’s society, yet in the 19th century it is far from being an obvious thing. Confusion and misinterpretation due to the inversion between the hour and minute hands are common. Antoine Blondeau’s genius consisted in completely rethinking the time display and introducing a disc instead of a hand to facilitate its reading. The time appears clearly in an aperture thus eliminating any doubt or error in reading.
A very nice example of one of these very first watches was presented by Aguttes on September 28, 2022 during the exceptional sale Une Histoire du Temps, Ancienne Collection B (lot 49, sold for 2.860€).
In the history of watchmaking, the first watches with windows appeared in the 18th century. Initially dedicated to great complications, the window proved to be very practical for astronomical or calendar watches. From 1830 onwards, watches with apertures became more numerous, but they are still rare, a trend that continues at the beginning of the 20th century and even today. The jumping hour mechanism induces a new dial configuration with a modernist, even futuristic style, particularly atypical and less commercial. Today these antique watches are highly prized by collectors and appreciated for their modernity and minimalism of design. A white gold model produced in 1927 by Breguet, sold by Sotheby’s on June 16, 2020, is particularly representative of the very high quality timepieces produced at that time and highly sought after by enthusiasts today (lot 73 sold for €53,000).
1921, AUDEMARS PIGUET DARES THE FIRST JUMPING HOUR WRISTWATCH
Audemars Piguet was responsible for the first jumping hour wristwatch. Although the first pocket watch with aperture appeared around 1830, it was not until 1921 that this complication was offered in a bracelet version. A model with a rectangular case and ultra-strict lines inspired directly by the principles of modernist architecture and the Art Deco style in vogue in the Roaring Twenties. This type of historical piece is relatively rare on the market, but paradoxically remains “affordable” for enthusiasts wishing to acquire a watch of museum interest. The latest example is a 1929 model in pink and white gold sold by Sotheby’s in Geneva on May 7, 2022 for 53,600€ (lot 143).
This example, sold in New York in 1929, is emblematic of a strong trend : most of the timepieces produced in the interwar period were delivered to the American market, where the taste for this type of watch was much more marked than in Europe.
Among the key window watches, the Tank launched by Cartier in 1928 is an iconic piece. Produced in droves it is a rare model, and some vintage examples are considered unique pieces. On October 26, 2017, the Phillips auction house held the Legendary Watches of the 20th Century sale, during which a 1931 Tank with window(lot 31) sold for €133,000, more than double its estimate! In 1997, Cartier launched a new edition of this model to celebrate its 150th anniversary. A modern, more easily accessible piece that often unleashes the bids, a rose gold version of this legendary Tank sold for more than €100,000 on November 5, 2021 at Phillips again, more than 6 times its estimate.
1989, THE REVIVAL BY PATEK PHILIPPE
From the end of the 1930s, jumping hours became rare and disappeared completely until the dawn of the 1990s.
It was Patek Philippe who resurrected this complication in 1989 with the launch of the reference 3969. To celebrate its 150th anniversary, the brand created an ultra-limited edition of 500 watches – 50 in platinum and 450 in pink gold. This timepiece has everything it takes to become a great collector’s watch, as it is the very first watch with jumping hours to be produced in series. Patek Philippe was never really interested in this type of mechanism until 1989. According to some specialists, the old production would not exceed 12 pieces (pocket watches and wristwatches together), among which only 7 are identified to date and would be special orders. The reference 3969, more than a rare model, is a true collector’s item in Patek Philippe‘s production.
Moreover, as is customary for its commemorative editions, Patek Philippe has destroyed the tooling that was used to make this model in order to preserve its unique character for the long term. 57,000€ is the current record price obtained at auction for a platinum model sold by Artcurial….on November 28, 2012, one of the only ones presented to date at public auction!
In 2014, Patek Philippe did it again and launched a second jumping hour edition to celebrate its 175th anniversary: the reference 5275 Chiming Jump Hour. This limited edition of 175 pieces is equipped with an ultra-sophisticated movement that required 4 years of development. On June 9, 2022, one of these watches sold for nearly €920,000 at Christie’s. A record price that makes this complication one of the most sought after by the brand’s collectors.
GERALD GENTA, THE CREATIVE SPIRIT OF THE 1990’S
The year 1989 marked the great comeback of jumping hour watches in modern watchmaking, and the most influential watchmakers all launched their Saltarello collections. Among the pieces produced, Breguet caused a sensation with its subscription watch specially produced for the Italian market: Ore Saltanti. Issued in a limited edition of 50 pieces, it is an interesting collector’s item for all Breguet enthusiasts, as it merges two concepts that are emblematic of Breguet’s DNA : the subscription watch and the single-hand watch.
It was the brilliant Gérald Genta who designed the most fanciful watches of the 1990s. The man who loved “inventing new ways of telling time” developed the Fantaisy collection after obtaining an exclusive license from the Walt Disney Company. Genta imagined a jumping hour watch with retrograde minutes featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck or Minnie. These timepieces are valued exponentially since 2019. While it was still possible to acquire them for less than €8,000 three or four years ago, prices have soared since this year and now exceed the €20,000 mark, as evidenced by the result obtained on May 28, 2022 by Philipps (lot 899 sold for €22,780).
JUMPING HOURS IN CONTEMPORARY WATCHMAKING
If they were all the rage in the 1990s, windowed watches have also been very much in vogue in recent years. Among the modern pieces, the models produced by IWC or independent watchmaker Ludovic Ballouard are enjoying unparalleled success.
Launched in 2018 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of this complication in the house’s collections, IWC imagines an extra large (45 mm) jumping hour watch Tribute to Pallweber, a pink gold series limited to 150 pieces. As early as 1884, IWC produced its first pocket watches with apertures, commonly called “Pallweber watches” in reference to the Austrian watchmaker Josef Pallweber who patented this display in 1883 and sold it to IWC. The brand has updated this complication and transposed it into a wristwatch with a minimalist white enamel dial. A watch with an ultra-modern look, yet inspired by past collections. Among the recent models sold at auction, Sotheby’s recorded a score of €32,000 on December 14, 2021 in New York for this ultra-contemporary model in pink gold.
On the independent side, Ludovic Ballouard reinterprets this complication better than any other with the Upside Down model. In 2009, the French watchmaker, who cut his teeth at François-Paul Journe, presented his first watch, a timepiece with jumping hours whose mechanism he revisited so that of the 12 numbers on the dial, only the one that indicates the time is positioned right side up, all the others being displayed upside down. An eccentric but above all poetic reading of the time that invites us to live in the present moment by putting the past and the future aside. Ludovic Ballouard is one of the most talented independent watchmakers of his generation. Creating alternative ways of telling time is one of his major inspirations, and to date, Ludovic Ballouard has developed the most complex “Jumping hour” mechanism on the market. Working alone in his Geneva workshop, each model is produced in very small series and is stopped when the watchmaker starts a new project. Still not well known to the general public, his watches are already very popular with collectors of grand complications and the rare pieces presented at auction have achieved results ranging from 35,000 to over 60,000€. An Upside Down model was sold for 61,190€ on May 8, 2022 by Philipps. A promising watchmaker whose creations are already categorized as “collector’s watches”.
With their particularly creative dials, jumping hour watches are elegant, original and rare pieces. Too long considered a minor complication, contemporary watchmaking is now revisiting this surprising functionality. A complication that enthusiasts and major collectors also seem to be rediscovering and appreciating, as evidenced by the current market and the latest results observed at auctions.
