Jump hours are having a bit of a moment as the quirky complication du jour. However, Andersen Genève, the brand set up by the eponymous Svend, has been dabbling with this particular horological denomination since the ’90s. Andersen was originally commissioned to make one for a collector in 1995 combined with a minute repeater. Not content with the usual way of doing things – plain dial with an open aperture at 12 for the hours and another scale for the minutes – Andersen developed a different method. At the top of its dial were two curved scales at 12 o’clock: 0600 to 1800 on the top and 1800 to 0600 underneath. Day and night divided into two timeframes. It was so unusual that it caught the eye of Cartier who, in 1998, put this unique representation in a Pasha. It was a rather appropriate creation for a man who made a name for himself in the 1960s by putting mechanical clocks in bottles.

This might seem like a gimmick; however, it was precisely this that led to Svend Andersen’s being offered a place in Patek Philippe’s renowned “grandes complications” atelier, which arguably kickstarted his career. Andersen was a Copenhagen native who moved to Switzerland after graduating from watchmaking school because the only watch-workshop positions he could get in Denmark was after-sales servicing. He devised his calling-card creation after seeing a clock through an empty bottle at a New Year’s Eve party and its subsequent success earned Andersen the moniker of “watchmaker of the impossible” as well as nine years at Patek Philippe where he became indispensable as a restorer of old pocket watches for the marque’s museum. 

This position put him in front of discerning collectors, one of whom had a Louis Audemars pocket-watch movement, without a case. He approached Andersen who, at the time, had no idea how to make a case, but he did have the archives of the Patek museum at his disposal and used those to study how. This soon became his stock-in-trade and set him on a path that led him to create his own atelier, which is celebrating its 45^th anniversary this year.

While this new Jumping Hour with a luminescent mother-of-pearl dial isn’t part of the clutch of anniversary editions, and is a more conventional realisation of this complication, it is still a cause for celebration. Following on from last year’s black jade dial, it might be even more beautiful than its predecessor.

‘For me, there’s something truly magical about mother of pearl,’ says CEO Pierre-Alexandre Aeschlimann. ‘In our Jumping Hour, it brings a quiet, almost poetic elegance – shifting with the light, it reveals a soft, milky glow or a dance of iridescent colour. Framed in platinum, each dial feels like a small work of art, entirely unique. It’s a reminder that true beauty often lies in the subtle details.’

Turn the watch over and what can be seen through the sapphire crystal is almost more breathtaking than the dial. The movement is a Frédéric Piguet 11.50, double barrelled with a 70-hour power reserve. Individual parts have been meticulously chamfered, screw heads mirror polished, and Côtes de Genève decoration; all of which is done by hand at Andersen’s workshop. There’s “grain d’orge” guilloche on the 18ct pink-gold rotor and on the bridge you can see the A logo. Encircling all this is a band of 21ct BlueGold. Something of an Andersen Genève signature, this precious metal is made by combining 24ct gold with iron elements and then heat-treating it to turn it a radiant shade of blue. This process results in a unique tonality and means shades can vary from light or dark blue through champagne, grey or even purple. Jumping hours may be popping up everywhere at the moment but this from Andersen Genève reminds you that they’ve been doing this a while. Which is why it’s perfect. 

andersen-geneve.ch