Andersen Geneve Jumping Hours 40th Anniversary Platinum

The Jumping Hours, in which the hour is shown digitally while minutes are indicated by a hand, is one of watchmaking’s most elegant traditional complications. ANDERSEN Genève has now taken this genre to new levels of artistry and beauty.

Like all ANDERSEN Genève creations, this is a watch in which each element – dial, case, movement – is treated with equal focus and delicate technique. The new model in platinum 950 sees the bar raised even further, since platinum is a far more challenging and arduous material to work with. It requires different techniques of machining and craftsmanship to achieve the most flawless finish. In platinum, for instance, the elegant lugs must be machined separately and painstakingly welded to the case barrel.

With this watch, ANDERSEN Genève presents an exceptionally refined interpretation of the classic Jumping Hours complication. The hour is indicated through a window at 12 o’clock, while the minutes tick by discretely on a beautiful sub-dial at 6 o’clock. Either side fo the sub-dial sit tywo plaques inscribed with “1980” and “2020”, marking the company’s first 40 years.

The rest of the dial forms a canvas on which to exhibit the most outstanding craftsmanship, with a mesmerising “magic losange” guilloché pattern hand engraved into a dial surface made from a signature ANDERSEN Genève material: 21ct BlueGold. To achieve this incredibly rare material that is used almost uniquely in watchmaking by ANDERSEN Genève, 24ct gold mixed with iron elements is heated in an oven, turning it a radiant shade of blue. In this completely artisanal process, no two dials emerge from the oven with quite the same tonality, making every dial unique.

Into this is inscribed guilloche work of a kind that is exceptionally difficult to execute, requiring three different machines to build up the intricately detailed pattern. The result is a dial with a truly unique appearance, which changes constantly as the light catches it from different angles.

The reverse of the watch is no less artful: a sapphire glass case-back reveals the beautiful anglage and hand-finishing of the movement, and the 18ct yellow gold rotor magnificently decorated with a “grain d’orge” guilloché pattern. Surrounding this, a ring of 21ct BlueGold is hand-engraved with the text “40 years of independent timepiece creation”.

The watch is powered by the Frédéric Piguet 11.50 movement, one of the finest haute horlogerie automatic calibres in Swiss watchmaking. Its ultra-slim dimensions make it a perfect base to carry the jumping hours mechanism developed and manufactured in-house by ANDERSEN Genève, while its two-barrel architecture ensures a long power reserve of 60 hours.

Forming the fourth and final watch in ANDERSEN Genève’s anniversary collection, this is truly a milestone watch for a milestone moment. It is made in a Limited Edition of 40 timepieces only.