We’re heading into a big new release period as much of the watch industry descends on Geneva for the upcoming GPHG awards ceremony, and then heads to Dubai for the Dubai Watch Week festivities. There’s sure to be a ton of news made in the next two weeks as this year’s best watches receive their flowers and we get a first look at many of the new novelties that will close out the year as head into the holiday rush, and tempt us for 2026. Czapek, the Swiss indie best known for their Antarctique line of integrated bracelet sports watches, is first out of the gate among higher end independents with a new novelty just announced today. The Time Jumper is an audacious new piece made to celebrate the brand’s tenth anniversary, reaching back into Czapek’s roots before the current incarnation of the brand was incorporated, and also putting a new spin on a complication that has been all the rage this year.
When I first heard that Czapek would be releasing something new and splashy to celebrate their tenth anniversary, my mind immediately began wondering “I wonder what kind of Antarctique they’ve come up with?” I should not have been so cynical, but it’s an unavoidable fact that the brand has really leaned into the popularity of the integrated bracelet sports watch platform since the first of these watches was introduced around five years ago. There have, of course, been many iterations, limited editions, and complications, and it probably would have been easy enough for the folks at Czapek to come up with a cool enough rendition of the Antarctique for their ten year celebration. So they deserve a certain amount of credit, I think, for going in a different direction entirely with the Time Jumper. It’s mechanically complex and different enough from a design perspective that you have to take note that this brand is only ten years old. This watch represents a lot of ambition for a brand that’s still very young in watch industry terms.
The watch itself is built around a jump hour complication at the center of the dial with trailing minutes displayed on a ring visible through an aperture near the 6:00 position. The Time Jumper debuts the all new in-house Calibre 10 movement, which puts the jumping hour display on two discs rotating in tandem and meeting at the center. It’s a remarkably intuitive and easy way to read the time.
Two versions of the watch have been announced, one in steel and the other in gold. Both measure 40.5mm in diameter and have what Czapek refers to as a “half-hunter” cover. The elaborate guilloche surface that frames the hour and minute apertures can be flipped up to reveal the Calibre 10 movement in full. It’s an impressive view – the movement is fully skeletonized, and of course because of the jumping hour complication (on two discs) there’s quite a bit of action here. The design of the guilloche itself is also pretty compelling. It’s meant to evoke a black hole, with the terminus being the jump hour complication positioned at the center. The fact that it’s an optical illusion (the hinged part of the case is not actually curved inward) speaks to the quality and intricate nature of the guilloche pattern.
The Time Hunter strikes me as a particularly interesting example of a brand seeking to craft something new and contemporary while looking to the past for inspiration. The design inspiration for the Time Hunter comes from pocket watches created by Francois Czapek in the 19th century, and there is certainly a classicism at play here in the guiloche decoration and the complication itself. But the execution of that complication, with a skeletonized movement and a sleek, almost sporty case with pinched lugs and an integrated rubber strap, is very 2025, and very Czapek.
The Time Jumper is a limited edition, with 100 pieces being produced in steel and only 30 in gold. The steel version carries a retail price of 42,000 CHF, and the gold is 64,000 CHF. Czapek
