AP Revives a 1929 Jumping Hour Watch with the Art Deco-Inspired Neo Frame

When you think of Audemars Piguet, it’s highly likely that the first watch that comes to mind is the ineffable Royal Oak. The octagonal-bezeled timepiece defined the luxury sports watch category and still looks exquisite today.

It also helps that, besides the Royal Oak and the larger Royal Oak Offshore, the Swiss watchmaker only has one other key design pillar, and that’s the Code 11.59. That all changes today with the release of the vintage-inspired, very rectangular Neo Frame, a jumping hour timepiece done the AP way.

The Guichet Revival

Jumping hour watches — or guichet watches, named after the French word for “window” — have been staging a comeback. Cartier reignited interest with their Tank à Guichets reissue in 2025, itself a revival of their 1928 original. Since then, brands like Bremont, Chronoswiss, and Czapek have released their own takes on the complication. But AP’s entry raises the stakes considerably, both in finishing quality and historical legitimacy.

The jumping hour complication itself dates back to 1650 in night clocks, later adapted for pocket watches in the 18th century. By the 1920s interwar period, the format became popular in wristwatches because the full dial with two apertures helped protect fragile mineral crystal while offering a distinctly modern time display.

A Century in the Making

AP isn’t new to jumping hours. In fact, they’re credited with the world’s first, which arrived way back in 1921. Between 1924 and 1951, the brand sold 347 timepieces featuring this complication, including 135 with dual apertures. The Neo Frame Jumping Hour draws specifically from the pre-model 1271, a watch from 1929 that exemplified Streamline Moderne design with its vertical gadroons and Art Deco sensibilities. Only 14 pieces of that reference were ever made, with most sold before the October 1929 stock market crash ended the era.

Form Meets Futurism

Sporting a vertical shape, the Neo Frame case measures 34mm wide and 47.1mm lug-to-lug in 18-karat pink gold. Eight gadroons flank each side, extending into downturned lugs that create an elongated arch reminiscent of ocean liner design from the late Art Deco period. It’s also quite thin at just 8.8mm, which feels appropriate given AP’s history with ultra-thin movements.

Where things get interesting is the dial construction. Rather than a traditional metal dial, AP used a black PVD-coated sapphire crystal that runs edge to edge with no framing at 12 and 6 o’clock. The dial plate is bonded directly to this crystal and then screwed into the case — a technique developed specifically for this model to achieve 20m of water resistance despite the exposed sapphire. The two apertures feature sandblasted pink gold-toned frames: a rectangular window for the jumping hours at 12 o’clock and an arched aperture for trailing minutes below.

The hour and minute discs themselves are titanium and aluminum respectively, which reduces the energy demand on the movement while improving shock resistance. White numerals on matte black backgrounds appear to float beneath the glossy sapphire surface.

Movement Evolution

Under the display caseback sits the new in-house Caliber 7122, an evolution of the Caliber 7121 that powers the Royal Oak Jumbo. This marks AP’s first self-winding jumping hour movement, running at 4Hz with a 52-hour power reserve — nearly identical to the base caliber despite the additional energy consumption of the instantaneous jump mechanism. An openworked 18-karat pink gold rotor with gadroon detailing visible through the caseback maintains the design continuity.

The movement also features a patented shock-absorbing system that mechanically prevents hour jumps during impacts, addressing one of the practical concerns with traditional jumping hour mechanisms.

Spec Sheet

Pricing & Availability

Priced at $71,200, the Audemars Piguet Neo Frame Jumping Hour will be available from AP boutiques and authorized dealers starting this June. Unlike the [RE]Master series, this is not a limited edition but rather the inaugural piece in an ongoing collection that AP plans to expand with future releases.

Recap

Audemars Piguet Neo Frame Jumping Hour

Audemars Piguet just launched the Neo Frame Jumping Hour, a new collection that resurrects the brand’s 1929 Art Deco jumping hour watches with modern materials like a bonded sapphire dial and their first self-winding jump hour movement. At $71,200 in pink gold, it’s a proper return to AP’s pre-Royal Oak roots with gadroon detailing and Streamline Moderne design that feels both vintage and futuristic.

Learn More: AP