Guichet watches, featuring small window apertures for displaying hours and minutes, have quietly regained popularity in modern watchmaking. Known also as jump hour designs, these timepieces provide a minimalist alternative to traditional sweeping hands. Recent releases from brands like Cartier, Chopard, and Louis Vuitton highlight their innovative appeal.
Guichet watches derive their name from the small window apertures that reveal the hour and minutes, offering a digital-style readout in mechanical timepieces. Once rare, these designs now serve as a radical alternative to the sweeping hands and skeletonized movements common in horology. The effect is described as minimalist, modern, and unexpected, encouraging frequent glances at the wrist.
At the 2025 Watches and Wonders event, Cartier reintroduced its Tank à Guichets in yellow gold, rose gold, and platinum variants. The model features a manual-wind calibre 9755 MC, with a square jump aperture positioned where 12 o’clock would typically be, and a minute display at the dial's bottom. This edition embodies Cartier’s avant-garde approach while maintaining an air of discreet luxury.
Chopard’s L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 Marquetry Edition combines intricate craftsmanship with jumping hour functionality. Its green dial showcases honeycomb straw marquetry—crafted by dyeing, splitting, flattening, and hand-laying straw into hexagons around the jump-hour display. The L.U.C movement provides four days of power reserve.
Louis Vuitton’s Tambour Convergence stands out in a 37-millimetre case, employing a dragging digital display where hours and minutes appear on rotating discs visible through curved guichets. Equipped with an in-house automatic movement offering 45 hours of power reserve, it is available in polished rose gold paired with a camel calf-leather strap, as well as a platinum model set with diamonds.
Bremont’s Terra Nova Jumping Hour, designed for exploration, includes an aperture display with jumping hours revealed at noon, running seconds in a central circular window featuring the Wayfinder compass logo, and minutes shown below. Constructed from hardened steel, it ensures chronometer precision and understated aesthetics.
These developments underscore the guichet's resurgence as a favored choice in contemporary watch design.