Jump Around: Five Timepieces Driving the Jump-Hour Resurgence

This might be an odd thing for a journalist covering the watch industry to say, but hear me out: Sometimes it feels like maybe – just maybe – there are too many watches being released. That is because it seems like every week there’s a new limited-edition take on some existing model with the only change being a different dial color or a slightly larger/smaller diameter.

That being said, I just can’t get enough new pieces equipped with jump-hour complications. Fortunately for me, at Watches and Wonders last year, collectors were treated to a new wave of jump hour watches led by Cartier’s Tank à Guichets and Bremont’s Terra Nova Jumping Hour.

Since then, recent(ish) releases from Niton, Louis Vuitton, Audemars Piguet, Cartier, and F.P.Journe have continued to pique our excitement with their modern interpretations of the cool new analogue version of the digital experience.

As we have discussed before, a jump-hour watch is a mechanical watch with a digital display because it uses digits rather than hands (though, to be totally accurate, some jump-hour watches use a combination of hands and numbers). What makes jump-hours special as a complication is that they require a specifically engineered module to make the mechanism controlling the hour indication jump-click into place at the start of every hour, rather than changing gradually.

For gearheads, the new Prima is particularly exciting because it is a revival of the historic jump-hour manufacturer Niton (pronounced nee-tone).
 

Originally founded in 1919, Niton was doing digital way before it was cool, manufacturing movements for brands such as Patek, Cartier, and Chopard. It was also one of the largest producers of movements with Geneva Seal certification. Industry veterans Leopoldo Celi and Yvan Ketterer relaunched the brand in 2025.

The Prima is the first piece for this reborn brand.  Measuring 27mm x 35.5mm, 7.9mm thick, and 42mm lug-to-lug, the rectangular case looks like a solid chunk of platinum or rose gold.  The profile is slightly curvilinear with a flat top. Beneath a keyhole aperture, the hour window, minutes dial, and sub-seconds are vertically stacked, lending the watch an Art Deco sensibility.
 

The Prima is also technically impressive. For starters, it is powered by an in-house calibre with a sonnerie au passage, which chimes on the hour. Moreover, the rectangular-shaped movement is fabulously finished! In short, this revival is redefining how we read time.

The Niton Prima is limited to 38 pieces each and is priced at CHF 44,750 for the rose gold and CHF 47,750 for platinum.

An audacious example of artisanal skill, Louis Vuitton debuted the Tambour Convergence Guilloché, featuring intricate engravings that evoke the Gilded Age, at LVMH Watch Week in January 2026. But in our digital age, jump-hour, or direct read, watches are simply more intuitive to a generation that grew up with G-SHOCKs.

This high-horology creation is a montre à guichet (French for “ticket window watch”) that displays the hours and minutes as they drag through two arched apertures. In keeping with the current trend toward smaller watches, this 37mm-diameter and 8mm-thick watch makes the most of its rose gold dial plate to showcase the brand’s savvy in the art of hand-turned guillochage
 

This timepiece does more than play its face card. Underneath the Belle Époque façade lies the LFT MA01.01 calibre, which is produced in-house at La Fabrique du Temps.

The Louis Vuitton Tambour Convergence Guilloché is priced at $58,500.

Described by the brand as a fusion of Art Deco elegance and modern innovation, the graphic styling of the new Neo Frame Jumping Hour from Audemars Piguet looks bold even though it references a historic complication dating back to 1650.

But what really excites us about this no-hander is that it is a new pillar model for the brand. And based on this bold debut, we can’t wait to see what the future will hold.
 

The Neo Frame Jumping Hour is a classic “What If?” timepiece because it answers the question of how watchmakers from the 1920s would integrate that era’s distinctive form of elegance using the engineering and materials of the 2020s.

According to Sébastian Vivas, Director, Museum and Heritage, Audemars Piguet, “The Neo Frame Jumping Hour is a nod to Audemars Piguet’s pioneering role in developing the first jumping hour watches in the 1920s. Back then, the glass was so fragile that it had to be protected by metal. Today, it is rendered in sapphire, which takes centre stage.”
 

The 34mm pink gold and sapphire case is adorned with gadroons and aerodynamic lugs. Moreover, its black sapphire dial with dual apertures is hand-assembled, and the calfskin strap features a newly developed motif. The Neo Frame contains AP’s first self-winding jumping hour movement, the Calibre 7122.

The Audemars Piguet Neo Frame Jumping Hour is a non-limited model and priced at $71,200.

Okay, we’re cheating a bit because the Privé Tank à Guichets, which Cartier unveiled at Watches and Wonders 2025, isn’t new. But we want to give Cartier credit for jump-starting the current mainstream interest in jump-hour watches.
 

The 2025 collection was part of a larger story of the 100^th anniversary of the Cartier Tank. The case sizes are a comfy 37.6mm by 24.8mm and 6mm thick. There are three variations of the original 1928 Tank à Guichets design rendered in three case materials – yellow gold, rose gold, and platinum – with spare, brushed surfaces. There was also a limited platinum “Oblique” edition with a wabi-sabi display (sorry, they are all spoken for now).

The Tank à Guichets revival was a hit because it felt so fresh. And since the collection was in honor of the Tank’s birthday, we’ve got our fingers crossed that we’ll see more variations on the direct read on non-rectangular Cartier models at Watches and Wonders 2026.
 

In the meantime, the Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets are priced at $47,700 in yellow or rose gold and $55,500 in platinum. Meanwhile, the 200-piece limited-edition Tank à Guichets “Oblique,” offered exclusively in platinum, is priced at $61,000.

Brands that were ahead of the jump-hour bandwagon have also been busy updating their collections. Bremont just updated the Terra Nova 38 Jumping Hour Stealth Black with a DLC case and a high-torque instant-jump movement. And Fears is celebrating its 180^th anniversary with the Celestial, an aventurine-dialed take on its Brunswick Jump Hour.

Renowned indie brand F.P.Journe was also ahead of the curve with the Vagabondage III. At the time it was launched in 2017, it was touted as not just a jump-hour watch but the world's first mechanical digital jumping seconds wristwatch.
 

For direct read ride-or-dies, the best thing about this foundational, tortue-shaped watch is that it’s fully exposed, showcasing the wizardry of the jump hour in motion. Indeed, there are no tiny apertures to display the time; the whole dial is one big sapphire window into the soul of the ultra-complicated caliber 1514.

To make this 45.2 x 37.6 x 7.84mm watch extra niche, between the jumping hours and seconds, the Vagabondage III also employs a one-minute remontoire d’égalité to provide constant force to the escapement, ensuring unwavering energy – something you need when you’ve got this many balls in the air.
 

The F.P.Journe Vagabondage III was a limited edition, so, alas, you can only pick them up at auction or on the secondary market.