Why are jumping hour watches suddenly everywhere?
Back in April 2025, Cartier caused quite a stir when they revealed their revived Tank à Guichets model at Watches & Wonders.
The design, which first launched in 1928, features a jumping hour display at twelve o’clock and a minute display at six o’clock.
While the hour hand usually moves gradually across a classic clock or watch face, in a ‘montre à guichet’ (which translates as a window or ticket kiosk in French) it ‘jumps’ to the next hour, powered by a lever that, when released, triggers the sudden movement of the disc on which the hour numerals sit.
Cartier wasn’t the first to use the jumping hour complication, though. Its first recorded use was by French watchmaker Antoine Blondeau, who deployed it in a pocket watch made for King Louis Philippe I in the first half of the 19th century.
The concept didn’t become widespread for another fifty years, however, when Austrian engineer Josef Pallweber registered a jumping hour movement on a pocket watch in 1883. He then licensed it to the likes of IWC, which continued to use it in pocket watches over the proceeding decades.
In 1921, Audemars Piguet became the first watchmaker to incorporate the jumping hour complication into a wristwatch, followed by Cartier later that decade. The jeweller’s pared-back design became synonymous with the age of Art Deco; jazz musician Duke Ellington was famous for wearing his Tank à Guichets timepiece.
The jumping hour complication, synonymous with the elegance and clean lines of the Art Deco era, fell out of favour in the sports-mad mid-century era, but it was revived in the 1970s by the likes of Bulova, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin.
More recently, in 2018, IWC introduced the Pallweber Edition ‘150 Years’ wristwatch, a tribute to the Pallweber system developed in 1883. Then Cartier relaunched its Tank à Guichets in 2025, and in the last few weeks Audemars Piguet and Louis Vuitton have both unveiled jumping hour models, demonstrating a renewed appetite in the market for this curious complication.
Audemars Piguet’s Neo Frame Jumping Hour is inspired by the watchmaker’s original 1929 Streamline Moderne design, and is powered by the manufacture’s first self-winding jumping hour movement. Its pink gold and sapphire case makes a distinct nod to the Art Deco era.
Meanwhile, Louis Vuitton’s newly released montre à guichet is the Tambour Convergence Guilloché, which is the third iteration of the luxury house’s jumping jour design. In 18ct rose gold, it features beautiful guilloché sunrays emanating from the hour and minute apertures.
Earlier this month it was also announced that defunct Swiss watchmaker Niton, famous in the 1930s for its jumping hour watches, has been relaunched by entrepreneurs Yvan Ketterer and Leopoldo Celi. Niton marked its comeback with the striking Prima, which harks back to the montre à guichet designs that made the brand renowned in the Art Deco era.
The revival of the jumping hour complication continues the design world’s renewed fascination with the Art Deco era. In 2025, the world celebrated the centenary of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, the event that launched Art Deco into the public consciousness, and later gave it its name.
The anniversary has sparked a revival in interest in the movement, with its influence increasingly seen once more in everything from jewellery to interiors to—of course—watches.
