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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Austria / Germany · Pallweber's mechanism patented and licensed from 1883–1884

Jumping Hour (Digital Disc) Display Mechanism

Partially verified

An early and commercially notable digital-display mechanical mechanism, later revisited by 20th-century manufacturers as a design and complication statement rather than a mainstream display method.

Instead of hour and minute hands, a jumping-hour mechanism displays the hour through a numbered disc (or occasionally hinged plates) that advances instantaneously once per hour, viewed through an aperture, often paired with a conventional minute hand or a similar jumping-minute disc.

Pallweber's system was licensed to several manufacturers, including for a time IWC, which produced Pallweber-system pocket watches under licence in the 1880s before the fashion for digital display faded until later 20th-century revivals.

How to verify this yourself

Pallweber's original German-language patent filings should be sought in the historical German Empire patent record (Kaiserliches Patentamt) under his name and the 1883–1884 filing window; IWC's own published company history documents the licensing arrangement.

Manufacturers known to have used it

  • IWC (licensed Pallweber production, 1880s)
  • later 20th- and 21st-century manufacturers producing jumping-hour and jumping-digital complications

Sources & references

  1. IWC, published company history of the Pallweber pocket watch
  2. NAWCC Bulletin, articles on jumping-hour and digital-display mechanisms

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.