Maybe this would be better saved for a Hot Takes episode of the podcast, but I’ll go ahead and spill it here instead: the new Bremont Terra Nova 35mm Jumping Hour watches are the best they’ve made since the big rebrand a few years ago. The fact that they are part of the Terra Nova collection is itself interesting, as this collection in particular was met with so much skepticism (including by us) when they were launched. But now, over two years removed from the drama of the brand’s big shift, there is a real sense that they’ve settled in, and the watches, when laid out on a table together in the way you experience them at a Geneva Watch Days meeting, feel more coherent.
I’ve always felt that these Terra Nova Jumping Hour watches were charming, but there was something a little ungainly about the size. The smaller montre à guichet style jump hour pieces at 38mm in diameter, wear every bit of that dimension and a little more simply because most of what you see when you look down to check the time is bare metal. The larger 40.5mm Jumping Hour pieces with an aperture arrangement running right to left across the dial felt similarly oversized for a complication that historically is characterized as something kind of delicate.
But when I picked up the new 35mm pieces, particularly the montre à guichet on a bracelet, the size felt really dialed in. I’ve been thinking a lot about the “correct” size for certain watches after reviewing smaller versions of Moser’s Pioneer and a pair of Trafford watches that literally force you to choose a preference, and I think sometimes it takes a brand a few iterations on a theme to fully understand what people want out of a particular watch. Certainly with the Moser, people were calling for a smaller version of the Pioneer from the very beginning. With Bremont’s Jumping Hour pieces, the adjustment feels like more of a revelation, or an unlocking of the potential of the watch.
At 35mm these watches are truly gender neutral and, I think, can be worn by virtually anyone as long as you don’t need to have a huge watch. At 35mm the montre à guichet feels like the type of vintage watch that these were always inspired by. And the new more traditional jump hour in burgundy has a dressier, more formal vibe to it that it could never achieve in its larger case. Of course that wouldn’t matter if the watch wasn’t well suited to it, but experiencing it reveals that it is.
The most attention grabbing new variant at Geneva Watch Days was certainly the Terra Nova 35 Jumping Hours Frosted, which gives the 904L steel case a luxurious frosted finish, accented by polished bevels at the lugs. It’s very nice, and one of the real draws for this one is the way it dispenses with the central running seconds window, based around a motif of the Bremont wayfinding logo, which has been a point of contention for some since it was introduced a few years ago. I’m personally agnostic on the logo itself, but think that the decision to remove it is certainly the correct one for the frosted case.
The new 35mm Jumping Hour watches are powered by the same automatic BC634 calibers found on the larger watches. In the smaller cases, the dial layouts allowed by these movements feel a lot more proportional and seem to make better use of the physical space around them. The calibers are by Sellita, and Bremont has an exclusive arrangement to use them in their watches. The “jump” motion is very crisp and instantaneous, unlike some that “wobble” a bit when the hour changes. Bremont touts this as an advantage but I actually think it’s a matter of preference for what type of jump action is more appealing. Again, part of the appeal of this type of watch, at least for me, is in the old fashioned nature of them, and a “slower” jump has a delicate, mechanical charm to it that can make the watch feel more like a relic (in a good way). On the other hand there’s a solidity and feeling of quality with the modern Bremont pieces that you’d obviously want to experience in a watch at this price point, so I understand the desire to play up the technical bona fides of these movements.
Pricing for the new 35mm Jumping Hour pieces starts at $4,000 for the burgundy jump hour on a strap, and $4,550 for the montre à guichet on a strap. The latter on a bracelet, my personal favorite combination, runs $4,800. The frosted version, available on a strap only, is $5,150. Bremont
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