Jacob & Co

Jacob Arabo emigrated from Uzbekistan to New York as a teenager, trained in jewellery design, and opened his own business at nineteen. He built a reputation through the 1990s designing pieces for hip-hop artists and became known as Jacob the Jeweler, and in 2002 he launched a watch brand.

The Five Time Zone watch that established it was as much a statement as an instrument: a central dial for local time surrounded by four subdials for other cities, heavily set with diamonds. It became ubiquitous in music videos and defined a category of watch that prioritised visual impact over horological restraint.

The company then did something less predictable. Rather than remaining a jeweller casing bought movements, Jacob & Co commissioned genuinely extreme complications from Swiss constructors. The Astronomia, launched in 2014, mounts a triple-axis tourbillon, a rotating magnesium globe, and a spinning diamond on arms that revolve around the dial — the entire mechanism in constant motion. The Twin Turbo Furious combines a double triple-axis tourbillon with a minute repeater and a decimal chronograph.

These are among the most mechanically ambitious watches made anywhere, whatever one makes of the aesthetic. The Bugatti Chiron collection, with a working miniature sixteen-cylinder engine on the dial, is the same idea applied to automotive partnership.

The company remains privately held.

Jacob & Co holds 1 model, from £28,500 to £28,500. Half cost less than £28,500, and a quarter less than £28,500. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

2002

Jacob Arabo launches the watch brand.

2002

The Five Time Zone watch defines the early style.

2014

The Astronomia introduces a triple-axis rotating movement.

2019

The Bugatti Chiron collection features a working engine on the dial.