Geneva’s independent watchmaking scene has witnessed its share of retro-futurist experiments, and a few manage with grace the delicate balance between playfulness and technical credibility – Czapek achieves it (again, I might say) with the Time Jumper. This is a watch that takes the half-hunter pocket watch format beloved by 19th-century gentlemen and reimagines it through the lens of mid-century science fiction, complete with a flying saucer silhouette and a patent-pending 24-hour jumping mechanism that sits at the heart of the new Calibre 10.1. Released to mark ten years since the maison’s revival and 180 years since its original founding in 1845, the Time Jumper stands as both retrospective and manifesto. What emerges is neither pastiche nor gimmick, but a considered piece of haute horlogerie that wears its conceptual ambitions lightly whilst delivering genuine technical substance.
Illusion, Aperture, and Legibility
The Time Jumper employs a half-hunter configuration, which means the guilloché cover becomes the primary visual element when the watch sits closed on the wrist. Here, Czapek has worked with Metalem to develop an exclusive three-dimensional guilloché pattern that creates a vortex effect, drawing the eye towards the central bubble-shaped loupe. This magnifying crystal sits directly above the hour indication, functioning as both practical tool and metaphorical cockpit window. The guilloché itself represents an evolution of the Singularité pattern created for the Antarctique Tourbillon, and its execution is technically demanding, each rotation through the rose engine requires a fresh starting point to maintain the spiralling geometry.
The loupe reveals two sapphire discs beneath, one displaying single-digit hours, the other showing tens. Together they form a 24-hour register, a deliberate departure from the conventional 12-hour format. The digits are laser-engraved and filled with Super-LumiNova, ensuring legibility in low light whilst maintaining the futuristic aesthetic. Around the periphery runs a rotating ring displaying the trailing minutes, also laser-engraved on sapphire and coloured blue through texturising. This configuration eliminates traditional hands entirely, forcing a different relationship with time reading, one that prioritises clarity and immediacy over the sweeping poetry of conventional horology.
Opening the cover via the oval pusher at six o’clock exposes the full movement beneath a box sapphire crystal, transforming the watch from dial-centric timepiece into mechanical theatre. The contrast is dramatic: from the tight focus of the guilloché aperture to the full reveal of bridges, wheels, and the central platinum rotor. It is a design choice that emphasises duality: concealment and exposure, tradition and modernity, intimacy and spectacle.
Calibre 10.1: Architecture, Mechanism, and Philosophy
Czapek could have marked its tenth anniversary with a grand complication: perpetual calendar, minute repeater, or some combination thereof. Instead, the maison has chosen to develop Calibre 10 as a foundation platform, designed for adaptability rather than immediate complexity. This represents a philosophical departure from the previous nine calibres, which were largely contemporary reinterpretations of classical complications. Calibre 10 exists to explore new horological territory, with each future iteration fully redesigned and re-engineered so that complications are integrated rather than stacked.
The movement measures 30mm in diameter and 6.13mm in height, constructed from 275 components running in 44 jewels. It beats at 4Hz, or 28,800 vibrations per hour, and delivers 60 hours of power reserve from a single barrel. The Swiss lever escapement employs a variable-inertia balance fitted with four gold inertia blocks, offering adjustment without requiring external timing weights. Seventy-five per cent of the movement is machined in-house, reflecting Czapek‘s evolving technical capabilities without abandoning the établissage principle that defines Geneva’s independent sector.
The winding rotor sits centrally, crafted from recycled 950 platinum and skeletonised to provide unobstructed viewing. Its arms, shaped like a geometry compass, anchor the visual composition with strong, straight lines that contrast against the fluid curves of the bridges.
The jumping hour mechanism itself is patent-pending. Traditional jumping complications rely on springs to accumulate energy before releasing it instantaneously, a process that demands careful regulation to prevent excessive torque from disrupting the escapement. Czapek‘s implementation combines the central jumping display on two sapphire discs with the peripheral trailing minutes, creating a 24-hour register that represents a première in this configuration. The energy management required to drive two separate hour discs, one for units, one for tens, whilst maintaining stable amplitude introduces additional complexity, yet the movement achieves this without compromising its 60-hour reserve.
Finishing follows Czapek‘s established aesthetic: rhodium-coated bridges sandblasted and circular brushed, contrasting against blackened plates to create depth and reflection. The wheels receive circular brushing and bevelling, whilst the springs are black-polished. Traditional negative engraving decorates the winding rotor, juxtaposed against the laser-engraved modernity of the sapphire hour and minute discs. The interplay between classical hand techniques and contemporary machining methods defines the movement’s visual character, neither purely traditional nor relentlessly modern, but occupying the space between.
Curves, Guilloché, and Aerodynamic Intent
Thomas Funder, Czapek‘s design partner for the Time Jumper, has eliminated virtually all straight lines and flat planes. The 40.5mm case, produced by AB Concept, measures 10.5mm in height without the magnifying crystal and 12.35mm with it. From lug tip to lug tip it spans 42.4mm, worn on a 19mm blue rubber strap secured by an 18mm pin buckle. The stainless steel case features a white gold guilloché inlay on the cover, hand-worked with the registered motif developed by Metalem.
Every element pursues softness: the oval-shaped button to release the cover, the polished and rounded lug ends, the crown with its grip notches recessed close to the case. Even the strap buckle minimises straight edges. The result feels organic, sculptural – as smooth as a river stone yet unmistakably technical in its execution. The flying saucer silhouette is overt, drawing from mid-to-late 20th-century science fiction, yet the traditional round form and half-hunter configuration ground it firmly in the vocabulary of 19th-century pocket watches.
The guilloché pattern on the cover deserves particular attention. Creating the optical illusion of curves drawn into a deep centre requires precise control during the engine-turning process. Each pass across the material must maintain consistent pressure and speed, with any deviation resulting in visible irregularities. The three-dimensional effect emerges from the interplay of depth, angle, and light, with the polished white gold contrasting against the surrounding brushed surfaces.
Water resistance stands at 3 atmospheres, sufficient for daily wear but clearly not intended for aquatic pursuits. The sapphire crystal caseback, treated with anti-reflective coating on the inner side, provides full view of the movement when the cover is open, a redundancy that emphasises the watch’s theatrical nature. With the cover closed, the caseback becomes the primary window into the mechanism, whilst the dial-side loupe offers a focused glimpse of the jumping hours.
Independence, Integration, and the Next Decade
Czapek will produce only 180 examples of Calibre 10.1, matching the number of years since François Czapek established the original maison. The initial release comprises 100 pieces in stainless steel at CHF 42,000 and 30 in 3N 18-carat gold at CHF 64,000, with the remaining calibres reserved for special projects including ten bespoke commissions.
The Time Jumper operates at multiple levels. As a technical object, it introduces a new jumping mechanism and establishes a modular platform for future complications. As a design statement, it reconciles heritage and futurism without collapsing into either camp. As a business proposition, it signals Czapek‘s growing manufacturing independence: 75 per cent in-house machining represents significant capability expansion, while maintaining partnerships with specialist artisans like Metalem and AB Concept.
What distinguishes this piece from much contemporary independent watchmaking is its refusal to take itself entirely seriously. The flying saucer case, the science fiction references, the playful presentation box crafted from sandblasted aluminium, these elements inject levity into a category often burdened by solemnity. Yet beneath the retro-futurist styling sits genuine horological substance: a patent-pending complication, hand-finished bridges, integrated design, and a calibre conceived as the foundation for a decade of mechanical exploration.
Whether Czapek‘s ambitious vision for Calibre 10 as a fully adaptable platform materialises remains to be seen. Fully redesigning and re-engineering each complication iteration, as opposed to stacking modular functions, demands substantial resources and technical depth. But the Time Jumper suggests that the maison possesses both the capability and the creative appetite to pursue this path. It is a watch that looks backwards and forwards simultaneously, anchored by traditional skills yet unafraid of unconventional expression, precisely the territory where independent watchmaking finds its purpose.
Czapek Time Jumper Technical Specifications
- 10 Years Revival / 180th Anniversary
- 40.5mm stainless steel case, in-house selfwinding jumping hour Calibre 10.1 movement. Limited Edition of 100 pieces – 42.000 CHF
- 40.5mm 3N 18-carats gold case, in-house selfwinding jumping hour Calibre 10.1 movement. Limited Edition of 30 pieces – 64.000 CHF
Functions
- Jumping hours & trailing minutes
Movement
- Calibre 10.01: Czapek’s in house self-winding mechanical movement
- Diameter: 30 mm – 13 lines ¼
- Height: 6.13 mm
- Number of parts: 275
- Jewels: 44
- Swiss lever escapement, variable-inertia balance fitted with four gold inertia-blocks
- Frequency: 4 Hz – 28800 VpH
- Power winding system: recycled platinum mass
- Power-reserve: 60 hours on one single barrel
- Sandblasted & circular brushed rhodiumplated bridges, bevelling
- New exclusive wheels design, circular brushing & bevelling
- SLN sapphire hours and minutes discs
- Minutes disc laser coloured in blue & texturized
- Black polished springs
Case
- Material: stainless steel case & white gold guilloché inlay / Material: 3N 18-carat yellow gold case &
- guilloché inlay
- Handmade three-dimensional guillochage with registered motif
- Diameter : 40.5mm
- Lug tip to lug tip (12h to 6h) : 42.4mm
- Height: 10.5mm without magnifying crystal, 12.35mm with crystal
- Sapphire crystal glass-box with antireflective treatment
- Sapphire crystal glass-box case back with anti-reflective treatment on the inner side
- Cover opening pusher at 6 o’clock
- Water resistance: 3 atm
Bracelet
- Blue rubber strap
- Lug to lug: 19mm
- 18mm stainless steel pin buckle / 18mm 3N 18k yellow gold pin buckle
