Jacob & Co., or better still Jacob and Company, is a privately owned jewelry and wristwatch retailer which was established in the year 1986 by diamond designer Jacob Arabo. The flagship boutique and its corporate headquarters are situated in Manhattan, in New York City (NYC). Arabo opened a small booth in NYC’s Diamond District after graduating from a jewelry design course in 1981, where he started designing for jewelry labels and private clients.
He eventually opened his own company in 1986, which he named “Diamond Quasar” and started designing under his own label, called Jacob & Co. Luckily, the jewelry caught the attention of Faith Evans, a R&B singer who afterwards brought her husband, rapper Notorious B.I.G. to the store. Eventually, they both brought other celebrity friends of theirs, to the store. As a result, the shop got a reputation with the music industry. More so, owing to the company’s unique products and famous clientele, their brand was able to gain popularity in New York speedily and consequently expand its business to the luxury watchmaking industry in the year 2002.
This progress was in no doubt the cause for Bugatti to form partnership with Jacob & Co. in view of producing better products.
But prior to this, the French manufacturer of the supercars known as Bugatti and that of luxury watch, Parmigiani Fleurier had once been in partnership with each other for quite a while. However, they eventually put to end their 15 years of exceptional and successful partnership. This they do in order to go their separate ways to search for new ventures, though their move was stunning to many in the world of premium watches because Bugatti had been in a long term partnership with Swiss watch brand, Parmigiani Fleurier.
In fact, David Traxler, the CEO of Parmigiani Fleurier delivered a speech expressing their gratitude to Bugatti for their 15 years of fruitful partnership and successes they have been able to achieve together. He further said that the collaboration had indeed inspired them to bring about numerous horological developments and mechanical wonders. He rounded up his speech by saying that they are recently focusing on new watchmaking fields and therefore wish Bugatti all the best in any of their future projects.
Afterwards, Bugatti found a replacement for the Parmigiani Fleurier (their previous partner) as they form another partnership with an high-end jewelry and watchmaking house of Jacob & Co. This new party signed a seven-year of partnership with Bugatti to work together on a series of exclusive co-branded timepieces. This announcement was made sooner than the commencement of Baselworld, with the aim of pushing the boundary of what appears to be mechanically possible.
More to this, the President of Bugatti, Stephan Winkelmann at the stand of Jacob & Co. (at Baselworld), made it known that with regards to the project in view, that they found the right partner in Jacob & Co. With the strong reason that both parties are dedicated to innovation through a superb technology as well as craftsmanship associated with absolute beauty and highest qualities of materials.
As a matter of fact, we can conclude that one of those ‘future projects’ stated by the CEO of Parmigiani Fleurier (when delivering his speech and expressing gratitude to Bugatti), have finally arrived. This is because, the new partnership between the Jacob & Co. and Bugatti has resulted to the launching of two new timepieces. One of them is the limited edition of the Jacob & Co. Twin Turbo Furious also known as ‘The Twin Turbo Furious Bugatti Edition’. This watch consists of two (2) triple-axis tourbillons (which spins to guarantee a precision in the timing), a column-wheel timer, and a decimal repeater that chimes (i.e. rings) the 10-minute intervals of your time past the hour.
Looking into the design, the watch showcase a turquoise blue outer ring on dial so as to serve as a symbolic acknowledgement to the Bugatti’s 110 years anniversary blue Chiron. More to this, the Bugatti logo is as well featured on the centre of the dial that is between the chronograph counters. In addition, coupled with the nod to the automotive spirit, Jacob & Co aligned the power reserve indicator at 6 o’clock on the dial. This power reserve was however referred to as the fuel indicator. Out of the number of pieces to be produced, 18 of them will be made in carbon fiber, and 18 will also be made from rose gold while three (3) are to be made to boast diamonds. The summation of these give 39 pieces which are definitely numbered individually. The watch is to be retailed for 525,000 Swiss Francs which its equivalence in dollars is $524,400.
Jacob & Co. Twin Turbo Furious Bugatti watch
On the other hand, the Jacob & Co put to the lime light the second watch at Baselworld. This watch was named the Bugatti Chrono Edition Limitée 110 Ans. Just as the name implies, the collection actually pays tribute to the brand that was founded by Ettore Bugatti in 1909 which is above 100 years ago.
It might interest you know that in the production of this model, around 110 pieces are only made. And this is to honor each of the year ever since it has been founded. The inspiration behind this watch is from the Jacob & CO’s original Epic X Chrono with column-wheel caliber.
This version (Bugatti Chrono Edition Limitée 110 Ans) however, showcase a forged carbon case and reveals a black matte dial with the colors of French flag designed in a vertical manner between the sundials. This watch was finally appropriated with a special rubber strap inspired by the Chiron. This specific watch does retail for 36,000 Swiss Francs.
The founder of Jacob & Co., Jacob Arabo described this completed project saying when he is viewing the Bugatti Chiron, what he often notice is that the perfectly refined engineering is so powerful to the extent that even sometimes it is as if the car seems to be moving even though it is standing still. He concluded that such feelings is what he often get when he is wearing their high complication timepieces.
