The new Jumping Hours, a unique piece from independent watchmaker Peter Speake-Marin is not a “jump hour” watch as you might expect — it is a quadruple Speake-Marin jump hour replica watch, with four separate hour indications that jump sequentially on the quarter hour. Unlike Speake-Marin’s first “multi-hand” time display watch (check out my hands-on video of the Speake-Marin Triad here) in which each of the three hour hands moved in tandem, the Jumping Hours here is more complex in its mechanics.The concept as described in the official press release along with the the press photos (which do not clearly depict the concept of the sequential quarter-hour jumping) were not easily understandable nor as illustrative as I thought they could be.
Frankly, I was a bit confused about exactly how this watch watch worked when I read the release. They key — and perhaps the only way — to understand this watch is seeing it in action:
“On the impressive fake Speake-Marin Jumping Hours, you have this continual animation as the minute hand goes around so that there is always something moving,” says Peter Speake-Marin. “The idea is to show the speed at which time passes.”
OK…but can’t the same be said of most watches (something is always moving). This Speake-Marin copy watch seems to me to be complicated for the sake of being complicated. Using four hour hands to accomplish what one hour hand could easily do, and for what? The intrigue escapes me. Particularly as I understand the price on this piece is 120,000 CHF.
Do you have a different opinion? Please comment below.