Fears Retires the Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour with the ‘Ultimus’ Edition: an Appreciation of a Modern Classic

Fears made some news this week not only with a new release, but also the announcement that one of their signature watches is being retired. The new Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour ‘Ultimus’ is, somewhat surprisingly, the last version of the Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour. Now, it stands to reason that Fears will not completely abandon the Jump Hour format. This platform has been incredibly popular for the brand, and seems to be a fount of creative opportunity for their design team and collaborators. Still, the appropriately named Ultimus is the end of a chapter, and it seems like a good opportunity to reflect on a watch that I’ve personally come to enjoy quite a bit in my own collection. 

But first, let’s break down the Ultimus. This is a collaboration with Andew Morgan, the UK based watch content creator, and features the same 40.5mm stainless steel case and Christopher Ward JJ01 jumping hour module (on a Sellita SW200 base movement) as every other Jump Hour Fears has made (well, almost every one – we’ll get to a few exceptions momentarily). What differentiates this edition, of course, is the dial execution. Typically, the Jump Hour is loaded with negative space. The Fears version of this complication features a small interior minutes track with an hour aperture at the top, and ample space within and without that circle that becomes a venue for an eye-catching color or an interesting material. It’s an inherently spare design, which I think is part of the appeal. 

The Ultimus essentially exposes the exterior, rotating hour track that is normally hidden from view via a sapphire crystal. The inactive hours are partially obscured by the minute track, effectively hidden under that layer of the dial. A black outer ring frames everything and holds the Fears wordmark at the 12:00 position. 

And, as you can see from these images, the entire dial is lumed. The addition of lume (and a lot of it) really changes the character of the Jump Hour, which I’ve always thought of as a fairly pure dress watch (even though it’s a tad big for a watch in that category, traditionally). But a lumed dial is a quintessentially contemporary, watch-nerdy thing, and makes the Jump Hour feel quite a bit more avant-garde in my opinion. Further differentiating the Ultimus from previous editions of the Jump Hour is the addition of a magnifier for the current hour, which should add a natural bit of depth to the experience and also help a bit with overall legibility. 

The Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour ‘Ultimus’ is available during a one week ordering window, which ends on August 17, via the Fears website or their boutique in Bristol. The retail price is $4,600 on a strap, or $4,900 on a bracelet.

The Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour is not exactly what I’d call an “underrated” watch – it certainly has received plenty of admiration from watch media types and owners – but I don’t know that we’ve fully grasped the way it stitches together a bunch of important threads in modern independent watchmaking. So as the watch is retired, I’ll try to connect them as best I can. 

First, notably, is the movement. Already I can see comments emerging on social media and popular websites that besmirch the watch’s price point as it relates to the caliber inside. This is awfully silly. Yes, the Sellita under the hood is not fancy by any means, but Jump Hour is all about the Christopher Ward built module that’s doing the work of the complication that gives the watch its name. The JJ01, someday, if it’s not already, will be seen by astute collectors as a pretty important movement in our space. It’s what’s behind the Christpher Ward’s Bel Canto, which adapts a jump hour complication into a chiming complication, and represents real innovation in British watchmaking. More than that, it’s a literal representation of partnerships that bind some of the most exciting UK based brands together. You really feel this when you attend British Watchmakers’ Day. The indie scene in the UK is genuinely exciting and full of creativity, and Fears and Christopher Ward are right at the center of all of it.

Above, a Christopher Ward Bel Canto. Below, a unique Fears Brunswick 40.5 Jump Hour owned by Kat Shoulders. These watches are mechanical cousins.

Second, the Brunswick Jump Hour is just a great design, and has proven itself to be particularly adaptable not just in collaboration efforts like this one with Andrew Morgan, but through custom work through Fears’ bespoke service.This is another important part of watch culture at the moment, as collectors who entered the hobby a decade ago begin to mature in their taste and seek out something truly unique to add to their collection as a keepsake. It’s been done forever at the highest end of watchmaking, but Fears offering this service at a relatively approachable price point has allowed for a new, younger generation of collectors to obtain their own unique pieces from a brand with real history and heritage. Our own Kat Shoulders owns a custom Jump Hour in a color matched perfectly to a car with a lot of sentimental meaning behind it (check out this podcast for the full story behind that watch).

When the Jump Hour was introduced, I actually considered having a bespoke version made for myself and contacted the brand about my options. I was already an owner of the Brunswick Aurora, and thought that a Jump Hour with a similar mother of pearl dial would be a cool complement to it. The team came back with some absolutely insane design ideas, none of which I’ve forgotten about, and hope to one day return to in some other context. I regretted not being able to pull the trigger on any of them at the time, until I came across an opportunity to own a Jump Hour I didn’t know existed earlier this year – a limited edition “friends & family” edition in solid silver. It’s become one of my favorite watches to own. There’s a stillness to any jump hour that I find appealing, and the black and white dial execution somehow accentuates that. And I love the silver case. I feel lucky to own this watch, which is a feeling that is rarely achieved in watch collecting, but one that if you chase can wind up feeling unusually rewarding. 

So, goodbye I suppose to the Brunswick Jump Hour, and to this specific moment in Fears history. To me, this watch has the makings of a modern classic, and somehow transcends the current jump hour trend we’re experiencing, which I think we all can acknowledge is a bubble that’s likely to pop at some point. Whether or not Fears decides to follow up this generation of the Jump Hour with something similar or completely different is an open question, but one I’m very interested in seeing a resolution to. Fears 

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