
Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Juvenia Jump Hours Cocktail Watch, circa 1920s
- Maker / attribution
- Juvenia (maker)
- Date
- c. 1920s
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Stock no.
- vws1964
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Vintage Watch Specialist (vws1964)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Juvenia Jump Hours Cocktail Watch - c.1920s (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Vintage Watch Specialist (dealer), United Kingdom (stock number vws1964), this is a wristwatch by Juvenia, dated c. 1920s. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Vintage Watch Specialist
A Charming Stainless Steel Jump Hours Cocktail Watch From the 1920s with a beautiful Midnight Blue Cabachon Crown. Juvenia was founded in 1860 by Jacques Didisheim-Goldschmidt in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Shortly after he relocated to La Chaux-de-Fonds, expecting better opportunities. Jacques' son, Bernard, later succeeded his father. In the 1880s, Juvenia produced one of the first ladies' wristwatches. What’s On Offer Well isn't this charming?! This little Juvenia jump hours watch may be small in size but it certainly has a big personality. In beautiful condition, and crafted from stainless steel, this delightful piece boasts a gorgeous little midnight blue Cabachon crown. The watch is paired with a new old stock flexi link bracelet also in stainless steel which obviously does have a fair bit of stretch in it, however, the size of the watch would determine that it was designed to fit the slighter wrist. Of course jump hours by their very nature do not have the conventional dial we think of watches having, instead the time is displayed in two aperture windows - one for hours and one for minutes. This is a beautiful little piece that would make a wonderful gift/keepsake for somebody.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Wristwatches
Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.
After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.
What to look for
- The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
- The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
- Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
- Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
- Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
- Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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