Lot 159

Audemars Piguet & Co.

Art déco

An extremely rare vintage white gold square case wristwatch with jumping digital hour display

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The Art déco period was one of the most important and style-setting periods in 20th century design. Even though it only lasted about 15 years (circa 1920-1935), it heralded great changes. The desire to be "modern", encouraged watch designers to find new ways of displaying time – this is how the jumping hour was born. Audemars Piguet launched the world’s first wristwatch with jumping hour in 1921, making the brand a stylistic visionary well ahead of their time. The watch featured a mainly solid case front with two openings for the jumping hour and a fan-shaped opening for the minutes which were displayed with rotating discs. Only a few years later AP also produced wristwatches with more traditional dials featuring minute hands and jumping hour at 12 o’clock and those served as inspiration to many other renowned brands. In the 1930s, Patek Philippe, Rolex and Cartier also created watches with jumping hour. AP, however, went even further and added a minute repeater to their wristwatch with jumping hour. Novelties such as the flattest pocket watch movement at a height of 1.32 mm only, or the smallest repeater mechanism with a diameter of 15.8 mm followed.
This watch with jumping hour comes in a rectangular 18 K white gold case. The silvered dial features a beautiful vertical satin finish with black enamel Arabic numerals and an upright rectangular small second. This elegant and sophisticated timepiece embodies the spirit of the "golden twenties" - an era of economic growth and the start of the modern age.