The humble hour hand is one of the foundational elements of timekeeping. A classic and simple indicator that makes a revolution around the face of a watch once every 12 (or 24) hours in order to point to the current time. However, hour hands are by no means essential and there exists a style of display that does away with them completely: the Jumping Hours. A style of display that has become increasingly popular over the past 12 months.
What is a jumping hour display? Well, instead of an hour hand it features an aperture that displays the current hour of the day as a numeral that swiftly jumps to the next number the second that the hour changes. This in itself makes them quite hard to produce due to the amount of strain it places on the mechanism and the torque involved in a quick change. It can be paired with a wide variety of other display elements ranging from conventional minute hands to rotating minute discs that occupy a similar position as the jumping hours itself.
Note that as we are primarily discussing these watches in the context of their style and the growing jumping hours trend, some of them are limited editions that have sold out and won’t be available at retail.
Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets
Arguably the most significant jumping hours launch of the year (so far) is the Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets. It marked the return and modernisation of a design that Cartier first produced in 1928 and which has been absent from the catalogue in a long while. It’s a stunning blend of minimalism and Art Deco influences with the dial of the watch essentially being an extension of the case itself.
It does suffer from one of the major issues of jumping hour displays which is that the very small windows for the hours and minutes does make it difficult to read. Though those apertures give the piece its name, Guichets meaning ticket window. An unavoidable artifact of using a disc style display that needs to fit inside the slim proportions of the 37.6mm x 24.8mm case, as it takes up a lot of internal space, necessitating a smaller font size.
ANDERSEN Genève Jumping Hours
ANDERSEN Genève get to claim the hipster motto of ‘doing it before it was cool’ because they have been creating impressive jumping hour watches consistently for years, not just jumping on the bandwagon in 2025 – they’re actually yet to release one this year though their previous releases have fallen in the late summer so there’s still time. They make use of the broad, uninterrupted space of the dial showcase their superb finishing skills through the minimalist simplicity of the Black Jade edition or jaw-dropping guilloché of the Rising Sun.
The jumping hour window is located at 12 o’clock and it’s balanced on the display with a minutes subdial at 6. It’s powered by the Frédéric Piguet calibre 11.50 with 72-hour power reserve. The movement is finished with just as much detail as the dial.
MAEN x Nico Leonard Jump Hour
Another high profile jumping hours watch from this year is the MAEN x Nico Leonard Jump Hour. At 34mm it’s relatively small by modern standards, especially for a tonneau watch, giving it a vintage flair. You can clearly see the retro inspiration based on mid-century jumping hours watches such as the Guichets above. Though a major distinction is that it’s presented with a full dial instead of the metallic cover seen in vintage pieces, diminishing the impact of scratches.
It is also without doubt the most accessible wristwatch in this article at a retail price of around £830. A large part of that comes down to making use of a third party workhorse movement, of which there are limited options when it comes to unusual displays like jumping hours. The calibre here is the Seagull ST1721 with a modified jump hours module and 38-hour reserve.
MB&F HM8 Mark 2 Purple
One of two jumping hours releases by MB&F this year is the HM8 Mark 2 Purple, an insane piece of horology designed to look like rear part of the chassis of a mid-engine super car. The curved sapphire glass resembles the window onto the engine bay through which you can see the rotating oscillating weight. The jumping hours and running minutes are instead presented via the two dials at the front of the watch displayed through crystals with intense magnification in them to make reading the display easier.
It’s interesting to see how such an Avante Garde brand is able to play with what is typically quite a restrained and minimalist style of display. Pushing the boundaries of style and manufacturing as per usual. It wouldn’t look out of place on the wrist of a sci-fi character.
Gerald Charles Maestro GC39 25th Anniversary
The legacy of watch designer Gerald Genta is still felt throughout the watch industry, especially when it comes to his industrial, almost brutalist designs like the Nautilus and Royal Oak. The Gerald Charles brand though is where he was able to express a more dynamic, baroque style. Something that’s perfectly encapsulated in the Maestro GC39 25th Anniversary edition with jumping hours. It’s one of the most daring and ostentatious watches of their modern creations despite its titanium case.
The dial consists of a wide jumping hours display at 12 o’clock, nice and readable for once, below which is a lapis lazuli centre with minute hand surrounded by a radial, sunray pattern guilloché. It’s worth noting that Gerald Genta is known for the jumping hours complication and his other eponymous brand, the one now owned by Bulgari, is also famous for this style of display with models like the Mickey Mouse [LINK TO: https://oracleoftime.com/bulgari-embrace-the-football-season-with-gerald-genta-arena-bi-retrograde-mickey-mouse-football/] though it has been several years since a major release.
MB&F M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud
MB&F’s second jumping hours watch is the M.A.D.2 by Eric Giroud. Instead of hiding the disc of hours beneath the dial with a window revealing a single numeral, it exposes the entire ring with a central indicator pointing to the corresponding hour. The same is true of the minutes on the right. Together they create the image of a DJ’s turntables, inspired by Eric Giroud’s clubbing days.
It’s powered by the La Joux-Perret G101 with a jumping hours module attached to it. It’s automatic and you can actually see the rotor from the dial side of the watch through a series of holes around the periphery of the display that create a stroboscopic effect as the rotor moves.
Bremont Terra Nova Jumping Hour Bronze
Bremont’s Terra Nova Jumping Hour Bronze combines the jumping hours display with an aesthetic inspired by trench watches from the early 20th century. That means a compact 38mm cushion case in bronze with a typography that wouldn’t look out of place on a classified military manoeuvres document. Due to being full bronze, it will develop a patina over time – though the caseback importantly is steel with a bronze coloured PVD coating to protect your skin from discolouration.
Unusually it displays the full set of hours, minutes and seconds using jump hours, a minutes window and central sweep seconds hand on compass subdial. It’s powered by the BC634 Jumping Hour calibre with 56-hour power reserve.
Anything but that bremont. They can’t service them. But will sell them.