Complications Explained: The Jump Hour

The Jump hour complication is another way for your watch to tell you the time. Instead of having hands that point to the hour, it has a disc that displays the hour through a window on the dial. Every time 60 minutes elapses, the disc jumps forward to the next hour. Often times this complication is accompanied by a disc that displays the minutes as time elapses. Some watches even have a seconds with a similar display!

The first jump hour watch that was produced and patented was created by Josef Pallweber in 1883, in a pocket watch that he described as “wandering hours”. The complication was also extremely popular during the 1920’s during the Art Deco movement. There are many vintage watches with this complication including an icon Cartier watch with its famous tank shaped case. The complication was also very popular during the 1970’s when mechanical watches competed against quartz powered watches. Today they it is less common to see watch manufactures produce watches with the jump hour complication, but boy is it a beautiful one. A common watch seen on Instagram with this complication is the IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” which is a reincarnation of the original pocket watch produced by Pallweber in a wrist watch case.

Enjoy!