Chaumet Jump Hour 11A

Jump hours are one of those complications that manage to be both poetic and geeky at the same time. Invented in the early 20th century as a way to make watches feel futuristic, they ditch the traditional hour hand entirely. Instead, you get a little window—just one number—and every sixty minutes, it leaps forward in a mechanical blink. The result? Time becomes a sequence of precise, clean cuts rather than a continuous flow. It’s the horological equivalent of turning pages instead of scrolling.

Today, jump hours are having a moment again, thanks to high-profile releases like Cartier's Tank à Guichets at the 2025 Watches & Wonders. But decades before that resurgence, Chaumet quietly put out what we now recognize as one of the most elegant executions of the format.

This is the Chaumet Jump Hour, introduced in 1992 and designed by none other than François-Paul Journe. Yes, that F.P. Journe. The same man who now builds six-figure masterpieces with resonance, tourbillons, and mad-scientist-level movements. Before all that, he worked behind the scenes crafting poetic, offbeat watches for brands like Chaumet. It’s the kind of provenance that makes collectors perk up. And rightly so.

What we have here is the midsize variant, a more compact version of the automatic 36mm, and frankly, the better-looking sibling. The case is shaped like a polished gold saucer—ultra-smooth, ultra-thin, and surprisingly bold for something this discreet. Because of the shape, it wears larger than you'd expect. You’re not looking at lugs and crown guards and excess bezel here—just one smooth curve of gold that hugs the wrist like it was sculpted for it. And then there are the apertures: two little windows that break the surface just enough to show you the hour and the minutes, printed on rotating discs. It’s quirky. It’s quiet. It’s captivating.

Powering it is a thin quartz movement that keeps things svelte and sharp. No rotor bulk, no fuss. And while quartz isn’t always celebrated in watch circles, it makes perfect sense here. The jump hour is a complication built on exactitude, and this execution nails the landing every time. The hour snaps crisply at the top of each hour—no lag, no wobble, just a perfect little event that repeats itself all day. You’ll catch yourself watching for it.

There’s something oddly serene about wearing a watch like this. It doesn’t constantly remind you of the time—it reveals it, one clean step at a time. A rare golden blink, over and over again.