Prestex is proud to introduce the Marcato Jumping Hour — a limited-edition mechanical watch that brings a fresh British perspective to a complication with more than a century of watchmaking history.

Immediately recognisable by its oversized jumping-hour display positioned at 9 o’clock, the Marcato has been designed to do something increasingly rare in modern watchmaking: take an established complication and give it a genuine reason to look and work differently.

Rather than displaying the hour conventionally with an hour hand, the Marcato presents it through a large aperture on the left of the dial. As the minute hand completes its journey around the dial, the numeral changes instantaneously to reveal the new hour.

It is mechanical watchmaking with a moment of theatre every sixty minutes.

Discover the Prestex Marcato Jumping Hour collection

A complication with history

The jumping hour is far from a modern invention.

Its history can be traced back to the late nineteenth century and Joseph Pallweber’s patented digital pocket-watch system of 1883. The concept subsequently evolved into wristwatches during the Art Deco era of the 1920s and has since appeared in the work of some of the most celebrated names in watchmaking.

Prestex founder Neil Duckworth’s own fascination with the complication stretches back to the late 1980s, when, as UK agent for Maurice Lacroix, he encountered the brand’s Heure Sautante jumping-hour watch.

Decades later, that fascination has resulted in the Prestex Marcato.

But this was never intended simply to be another jumping-hour watch.

Why 9 o’clock?

One of the Marcato’s defining features is the position of its jumping-hour aperture.

While many interpretations place the hour display at 12 o’clock, Prestex deliberately positions its oversized numeral at 9 o’clock.

There is a reason for it.

We naturally read from left to right. With the hour displayed on the left and the central hand indicating the minutes, the Marcato allows the eye to read the time in the same sequence in which we would say it: 8:30. 10:15. 3:45.

The position also allows Prestex to retain a full-length, elegant central minute hand without it passing across and obscuring the hour aperture at the moment of change.

Visually, there is another advantage. The large hour display on the left counterbalances the crown on the right, giving the watch an intentionally asymmetric yet balanced character.

It is distinctive because it is functional — not simply for the sake of being different.

Why “Marcato”?

The name itself tells another part of the story.

In musical notation, Marcato — Italian for “marked” or “with emphasis” — instructs a musician to give particular emphasis to a note or chord.

Neil Duckworth saw a natural parallel with the jumping-hour mechanism.

For 59 minutes the watch progresses quietly. Then, at the top of the hour, the mechanism releases and the numeral changes with a distinct mechanical action.

One minute in every hour is, quite literally, given emphasis.

Marcato.

Created for Prestex

At the heart of the Marcato is the Sellita SW300 automatic movement, paired with a jumping-hour module manufactured specifically to Prestex’s requirements and tested by Prestex watchmakers in England.

According to Neil Duckworth, no other watch company currently uses this particular module, giving the Marcato a mechanical identity that goes beyond its distinctive appearance.

Housed within a 39mm cushion-shaped case measuring under 12mm thick, the proportions have deliberately been kept restrained. This is not an oversized concept piece built around its complication; it has been designed as an elegant, highly wearable mechanical watch.

And despite the unconventional hour display, reading the Marcato quickly becomes instinctive.

Hour on the left. Minutes from the centre.

Simple.

A watch that waits for the hour

There is something particularly compelling about a mechanical complication that makes you wait.

The Marcato does not constantly reveal what it can do.

For most of the hour, the long central minute hand travels around the dial while the oversized numeral remains patiently in place.

Then comes the moment.

59 minutes.
60.
Click.
The hour jumps.

And the cycle begins again.

That moment is the essence of the Marcato.

A mechanical watch designed not only to tell the time, but to make one particular moment every hour worth waiting for.

The Prestex Marcato Jumping Hour

The Marcato represents a different approach to the jumping hour: one informed by the history of the complication but unmistakably Prestex in its execution.

Distinctive without being unconventional for its own sake. Mechanical, functional and designed to be worn.

A different way of reading time. A different approach to the jumping hour. And a complication designed to make its presence felt.

Discover the Prestex Marcato Jumping Hour collection