The New Chronoswiss Neo Digiteur, The Return of the Brand’s Jumping Hour Guichet Watch

Chronoswiss has always moved in its own rhythm. From the regulator wristwatches that defined its 1980s identity to today’s bold Lucerne-built timepieces, the brand has never shied away from doing things differently. Few statements were as radical as the Digiteur, a watch without hands, powered by a mechanical calibre, yet read like an early digital display. When Gerd-Rüdiger Lang launched the Digiteur MSA (Montre sans Aiguilles) in 2005, it was a love letter to the mechanical digital wristwatches (montres à guichets) of the 1920s-30s: a rectangular precious-metal case housing a hand-finished shaped calibre with three windows for jumping hours, digital dragging minutes, and running seconds. Built in roughly 990 pieces across various versions, it became a bit of a cult object, anachronistic and defiantly analogue as the world went digital. But now, with renewed interest in jumping hour and guichet watches, it is potentially the right timing to bring it back. 

Twenty years on, the brand revives the concept, not as a replica but as a re-engineered timepiece with legitimacy. The Chronoswiss Neo Digiteur preserves the spirit while translating it into stainless steel, contemporary proportions, and a different movement built for the task. Every surface is refined, every detail reconsidered, yet the underlying streak of mechanical rebellion remains fully intact.

The Neo Digiteur’s 48mm by 30mm rectangular case feels sculpted and wearable. Surfaces play with light: satin matte surfaces, polished edges, and a sandblasted horizontal band on the flanks that slims the profile. The screw-in lugs underscore the build’s precision. At 9.7mm thick and 48mm lug-to-lug, it sits flat, more than you’d expect. The brand’s signature onion crown has been reshaped, flatter for better grip and cleaner integration. The case is topped with a sapphire crystal; the back is a screwed sapphire window. Water-resistance is rated at 50m.

Chronoswiss still calls this watch an MSA, a montre sans aiguilles (meaning “watch without hands” in English). Time is read through three apertures: jumping hours at 12 o’clock, dragging digital minutes at the centre, and sweeping seconds at 6 o’clock. The layout is wonderfully legible once your eye adapts, more instrument than ornament, and unmistakably Digiteur. Two executions set the tone: Granit with an anthracite vertically satin-finished dial and deep-blue numerals for a cool, technical look, and Sand with a 4N gold-toned sandblasted dial and navy numerals for a warmer, vintage-adjacent vibe. Typography is clean, spacing precise, and nothing distracts.

Inside the Chronoswiss Neo Digiteur is the new Calibre C.85757, a hand-wound movement operating at 21,600 vibrations/hour with 48 hours of autonomy, which is based on a Peseux architecture. Under the dial, a proprietary in-house module handles the energy spike of the hour jump while keeping the minute and seconds discs as dragging elements. Through the back, you’ll spot hand-guilloché on the wheel bridge and radial Côtes de Genève on rhodium-plated bridges, finishing that nods to the refined mechanics of the shaped calibre FEF 130, which powered the 2005 original.

The new Chronoswiss Neo Digiteur is worn on a black nubuck leather strap closed with a steel pin buckle (Legacy logo). The Neo Digiteur Granit and Neo Digiteur Sand are each limited to 99 pieces and priced at EUR 13,800.

For more details, visit www.chronoswiss.com.