The Andersen Genève Jumping Hours in Minimalist Black Jade

A digital display in precious black.

The Jumping Hours Black Jade Stone is Andersen Genève’s new take on its minimalist, digital hour timepiece. Retaining the same specifications, it once against uses the wide expanse of the dial for visual effect.

The dial is a large, seamless piece of black jade just 0.4 mm thick that’s been lapped to a perfectly flat, mirrored finish. The glossy black dial is unadorned save for the hour display 12 o’clock, along with a pink gold minute hand matched with pink gold-powder printing.

Initial thoughts

Bringing to mind vintage jump hour pocket watches with its clean dial, the Andersen Jumping Hours is a perfect canvas for dial decoration given the available space. Even though it looks plain at a distance, the black jade dial is striking in its colour and simplicity, while also revealing the natural grain up close.

The time display, however, is unconventional. While the hours are easy to read, the minute register at six is easily and often mistaken for the seconds. Though I can understand the design-driven purpose of the minute sub-dial, I would have done it another way to make reading of the time more intuitive.

The quality of work is typical Andersen, which is artisanal and visibly so. It doesn’t have the perfect execution found in a Voutilainen or Akrivia but is done well. The price is commensurate with the quality – at about US$59,000 is more or less mid-range amongst high-end independent watchmakers.

Time only in black jade

One of the pioneering independent watchmakers, Andersen Genève was founded by Swede Svend Andersen in 1980 in Geneva. Though the octogenarian Mr Andersen has since retired, he remains involved with the brand, which is now owned by entrepreneur Pierre-Alexandre Aeschlimann. The Jumping Hours is one of the brand’s more recent developments, first launched the platinum four years ago to celebrate the brand’s 40th anniversary.

Compact and classical in style, the platinum is 38 mm in diameter and 9.22 mm high. It’s constructed in a traditional manner with soldered lugs, which allows for contrasting finishing between the brushed case middle and polished lugs. While the case is platinum, it has a pink gold crown to match the pink gold elements on the dial.

Standing in stark contrast to the white metal of the case, the dial is a smooth, deep black. Although the dial appears to be jet black at a distance, the natural grain of the jade is apparent under lighted magnification.

The hours are indicated in a window at 12 o’clock while minutes are in a small sub-dial at six. The minute hand is in pink gold, while the logo at 12 o’clock and minute track are in pink gold-powder print.

The open back reveals the Frédéric Piguet cal. 1150, which has two barrels and 70 hours of power reserve. Decorated in-house by Andersen Genève, the movement features an in-house jumping hour module on the front.

Besides the usual Côtes de Genève and chamfered, the movement is also dressed up with an 18k pink gold rotor finished with traditional, hand-applied guilloche. Additionally, a small plaque engraved with the Andersen “A” is screwed onto the barrel bridge.

The jump hours module

As is convention for several Andersen models, the movement sits in a ring of 21k “BlueGold”, a gold alloy that achieves its blue hue via heat treatment. The gold ring is hand engraved with both the brand name as well as the serial number.