Jacob & Co. has a big event in Sicily to release a wild new ‘Godfather’ watch Equipped with a three-axis flying tourbillon, it plays the famous theme song of the movie. The only thing it can’t do is make you a buttercream.
Anyone who grew up into hip-hop like me, first met Jacob “The Jeweler” Arabo as the King of New York’s bling, who outfitted nearly every major rapper with a diamond-encrusted necklace. Over the years, Arabo and his eponymous label—Jacob & Co., based in Midtown Manhattan—have grown to 130 employees, with an office in Geneva, and an ambitious approach to major league watchmaking. develop. How’s it going? Well, next week they’ll be awarded the Grand Prix de la Horlogerie de Genève – an honor that only really matters to those deep into the world of watchmaking.
Jacob & Co. is an emerging luxury brand with its gorgeous jewelry and flamboyant clientele. And in a world of traditional watches obsessed with 19th-century technology (which makes new customers wait years for a deal), new money is worse than no money. But in the realm of modern pop culture, the lines between high and low culture have been erased, and new money makes the world go round. Athletes and entertainers, not to mention real estate tycoons and private equity tycoons — these people don’t do waitlists. They are not shy about showing off their success. So in this case it makes perfect sense for Jacob to release a jewel-encrusted wrist-mounted Typhoon or a rose gold watch that is also a fully operational roulette wheel. . Yes, these things are extravagant. Of course they are. The same goes for the perpetual calendar.
Jacob & Co. Astronomia Solar Baguette Jewelry Planets Zodiac on the wrist. The watch is equipped with a 60-second flying tourbillon, which rotates around a central axis in 10 minutes, while maintaining a vertical orientation of the hours and minutes. This watch features 382 baguette diamonds and planets cut from amethyst, garnet and smoky quartz.
I’d wager that Jacob & Co.’s complications are more frequently used and more enjoyable than something like a helium escape valve or a split-seconds chronograph. In any case, over-the-top is the point. Every timepiece is a theme park on your arm. These watches have spinning planets and exploding rockets. They play songs. They’re less like traditional watches and more like music boxes and snow globes, which just happen to tell time and cost, just like a Ferrari. They make Richard Mille look like A. Lange & Söhne.
As such, Jacob & Co.’s timepieces are a celebration of possibility – that is, no watchmaker would want to handle a precious material in this way (and dare to charge for it), and any collector would have Enough money to blow one just for a laugh. Because that’s all. Haters don’t seem to realize this. Jacob’s watches have the rarest horological qualities: they are rarer than platinum or tantalum, rarer than a detent escapement or a spherical balance spring. They have a sense of humor.
This brings us to the brand’s new invention, the totally unnecessary but very interesting Opera Godfather 50th Anniversary Watch, a 500,000 CHF triple-axis flying tourbillon that pays homage to the Francis Ford Coppola gangster movie. Arabo and his 30-year-old son Ben Arabov, who is now the brand’s CEO, designed the watch to give it the feel of Vito Corleone passing the torch to Michael. The centerpiece is a red rose meant to mimic the corsage at the wedding of his daughter Connie Corleone to the rude Carlo Rizzi. At the usual three and nine o’clock positions, a pair of casks contain classic quotes from the script. If you’ve seen this movie, or have just lived on Earth for the past half century, you’d probably recite them — just as you could hum the movie’s theme song,
This gorgeous wristlet wouldn’t be out of this world without a party. So last week, Jacob & Co. invited collectors to Sicily, where they’ll visit the filming locations of The Godfather and enjoy risotto and elbow rubs with actor Gianni Russo, who plays Carlo. Crawfish will be served in the courtyard of the villa where Michael and Apollonia live, however short-lived, happily married. It’s a fitting image to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Godfather of the Opera watch, a mashup of truly refined haute horlogerie and haute couture. Please enjoy the following photos and descriptions by my colleague Mark Kauzlarich, who captures the surreal scenes as best he can.
