Basis Digital "Jump Hour"

About this model

Jump hour watches show the time through windows instead of with hands. A disc for the hour steps forward once an hour, with the minutes running on a disc of their own. The style belongs to the early 1970s, when digital displays looked like the future but LED and LCD watches cost a fortune. Two printed discs and a mechanical movement gave you the same face for a fraction of the money, and Baumgartner Frères built the calibre that made it cheap enough to sell. It is a simple, lightly jewelled pin lever movement, made to be affordable rather than fine. That is the point: this is a design object from the decade digital arrived, not a piece of watchmaking.