Swiss large digital pocket watch in the manner of Pallweber Circa 1890

Gunmetal cylinder watch by Gédéon Thommen
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A remarkable Swiss gentleman’s pocket watch with jumping hours and minutes, circa 1890. This timepiece boasts an open faced gunmetal case. It features a white enamel dial with separate windows for the hours and minutes and small subsidiary seconds beneath, floral and foliage polychrome enamel decoration on either side, inscribed Système G.T. Breveté. The Swiss cylinder movement after Pallweber’s system. Case numbered.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Weight: 124 g
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Signed: No name
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Josef Pallweber was an Austrian engineer from Salzburg. His registered residence changed several times within the German Empire, from Furtwangen via Frankfurt am Main to Mannheim. The company name, Josef Pallweber & Sohn, was also known in Austria. He is considered the inventor of watches with jumping numerals, also called Pallweber watches, for which he filed a patent in Salzburg in 1883 at age 25.

Pallweber invented the digital time display showing jump hours and minutes for pocket watches with numbers on rotating discs next to the classic hands. Digits indicating the correct hour and minutes were revealed through two apertures on the dial, the seconds were still shown through a small hand on a subsidiary dial.

In the late 19th century, many watch manufacturers had the so-called jump hour watches in their range, among them renowned makers such as A. Lange & Söhne in Glashütte, Germany. However, one of the most prolific producers of this type of watch was the International Watch Company Schaffhausen (IWC).

After granting his patent to the International Watch Company Schaffhausen, Josef Pallweber subsequently licensed his mechanism to display the time in a digital format to other Swiss watch companies, such as Cortébert and Gédéon Thommen, for the French and Belgian markets.