Feeling Jumpy? Meet Audemars Piguet’s New Elegant Neo Frame Jumping Hour Timepiece

While the mechanical-yet-digital jumping hours function has long been a part of haute horology’s story (some say Austrian engineer Josef Pallweber’s 1883 pocket watch patent as its official beginning; others believe it began with 17^th century clocks that used the approach on some level), no one can really deny that there has been recent resurgence of jump-hour complications, which I, for one, could not be happier about.

Certainly, A. Lange & Söhne’s ongoing development of the Zeitwerk, which debuted in 2009, stands as one of the pillars of the modern story of jumping hours. Similarly, Cartier’s revival of the Tank à Guichets jump-hour in Geneva at last year’s Watches and Wonders is emblematic of the new interest surrounding the eye-catching, design-driven, still disruptive function.

However, for the release of the new Neo Frame Jumping Hour, which debuted earlier today, Audemars Piguet has leaned into the jumping hour complication’s inherent sense of modernity and elegance to produce a distinctly appropriate streamlined approach to mechanical digital time-telling.

Based on the Calibre 7121 at the heart of Audemars Piguet’s “Jumbo” Royal Oak models, the new Calibre 7122 was developed in-house to deliver an instantaneous jumping hour snap with precise trailing minutes, as well as adding some more cutting-edge shock prevention technology and delivering 52 hours of power reserve. This is especially impressive given how incredibly thin the movement is (only 4mm).

The movement is all-new, but the Maison’s history with jump-hour timepieces is not. Between 1924 and 1951, the brand sold 347 timepieces with the jumping hours complication, including 135 examples with dual apertures for hours and minutes.
 

“This new timepiece is a nod to Audemars Piguet’s pioneering role in developing the first jumping hour wristwatches in the 1920s,” Director of the brand’s Museum and Heritage programs, Sebastien Vivas, commented on the launch. “Back then, the glass was so fragile that it had to be protected by metal. Today, it is in sapphire, which takes center stage.” Thus, the new Neo Frame Jumping Hour also features a modern sapphire caseback that gives a spectacular view of the 7122’s exacting workings.

When you consider that the new movement has to include both a dedicated titanium disc for the hours at the 12 o’clock aperture and a trailing minutes disc and aperture at 6 o’clock, the engineered thinness is already notable. But beyond that achievement, the movement’s thinness has also allowed Audemars Piguet’s design team to keep this new timepiece’s proportions reasonable (8.8 mm thick, 24.6 by 34mm).

The result is a rectangular two-tone case is both easy on the wrist and chock-full of dial design notes that both integrate the jumping hours’ streamlined Deco-era heyday with some clean, modern curves, as well.
 

First off, while many jump-hour timepieces of the past (and many modern executions, in fact) protected the dial under a metallic case cover, the Neo Frame Jumping Hour’s dial is crafted from black PVD sapphire. This makes for a look that is indistinguishable from metal (and perhaps even more gleaming, in the final result), but it may also be part of the “secret sauce” behind the timepiece’s overall lightness and, perhaps, dial design innovation.
 

For example, because there is no metal framing to anchor the apertures, the dial plate is bonded directly to the sapphire crystal, ensuring security and rigidity while delivering 20m of water resistance. Which makes this timepiece something of an understated modern marvel, if you ask me.

The deep blackness of the case gives way to two minimalist pink-gold-tone apertures: a single square window for the hours at noon, and a more curvilinear, always-moving minute gauge with integrated arrow indicator for the minutes (and seconds) at 6 o’clock. A stepped pink gold case edge and sides, vertical flanges and lugs, and a pink gold crown complete the elegant materials and metallic color story.
 

Also new to this model is a unique black calfskin strap with a modern-feeling vertical gadroon-textured pattern that runs right up to the top and bottom of the PVD sapphire case. Certainly, we might have seen horizontal patterns on jumping hour straps earlier, but this pattern creates an even more aerodynamic, streamlined, open geometric visual flow across the entire watch.
 

Launched today, the Neo Frame Jumping Hour is priced at 56’300 CHF and can be discovered on the Audemars Piguet website.