Jacob & Co. Watches: What the “Jacob the Jeweler” Brand Is Really Known For
Jacob & Co. fake Watches: What the “Jacob the Jeweler” Brand Is Really Known For
Jacob & Co. is one of the oddest success stories in modern watchmaking. It went from a kiosk in New York’s Diamond District to a $20 million wristwatch without a century of Swiss heritage, without a deep back catalogue of legendary references, and without much interest in what the rest of the industry thinks of it.
Depending on how you define luxury, that is either refreshing or horrifying. Either way, it works — and if you are trying to understand where Jacob & Co. watches fit in the wider market, you need to understand that the brand is not competing on the same axis as Rolex or Patek Philippe. It is competing on spectacle.
This guide covers what the brand actually makes, what those watches really cost, and who should — and should not — be writing the cheque.
What Is Jacob & Co.? (Yes, It Is a Real Watch Brand)
Jacob & Co. was founded in 1986 in New York City by Jacob Arabo , a diamond designer who had graduated from a jewelry design course in 1981 and started out with a small booth in Manhattan’s Diamond District. Through the 1990s he built a reputation making large diamond pieces for men at a time when almost nobody was doing it. The late rapper The Notorious B.I.G. nicknamed him “Jacob the Jeweler,” and the name followed him into pop culture permanently.
The client list reads like a festival line-up: Jay-Z, Drake, 50 Cent, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Madonna, Rihanna, Elton John, Mariah Carey, Michael Jordan, and David and Victoria Beckham.
Then came the watches.
Year
Milestone
2002
The Five Time Zone collection — quartz, loud colours, interchangeable bezels and straps, multiple time zones on one dial
2004
Moves from the Diamond District to a flagship boutique at 57th Street and Park Avenue
2007
Arabo founds Jacob & Co. SA in Geneva and launches the Quenttin — the first watch with a vertical tourbillon and a 31-day power reserve, then the longest in the world
2013
Epic SF24 , the first watch with a patented split-flap world time display
2014
Astronomia Tourbillon — the watch that changed how collectors read the brand
2015
Billionaire ,
2016
Astronomia Sky (sidereal display, zodiac, celestial panorama) and Twin Turbo (twin triple-axis tourbillon plus minute repeater)
2018
Twin Turbo Furious — launched around $554,000
2019–2020
Long-term Bugatti partnership; the Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon arrives at roughly $280,000 , limited to 250 pieces
2021
First luxury watch brand to sell an NFT (a digital SF24 Tourbillon that fetched $100,000) and to accept cryptocurrency
2023
Billionaire Timeless Treasure — 880 carats of yellow diamonds, around $20 million , the brand’s most expensive sale
2025
Alexander Zverev becomes an ambassador wearing an Epic X Titanium at the Australian Open; first store opens in Seoul
2026
God of Time , billed as the world’s fastest tourbillon — one full rotation every 4 seconds
That 2007 pivot matters. Before it, Jacob & Co. was a jewelry house that happened to sell watches. After it, the brand was making genuine high-complication pieces in Switzerland — and nobody could dismiss it as a fashion accessory again.
The Models That Define Jacob & Co.
Astronomia (2014). This is the one that made collectors pay attention. An exposed vertical movement carries four arms that orbit a central gear in 20 minutes: a lacquered magnesium globe of the Earth on one arm, a 288-facet “Jacob Cut” one-carat diamond representing the Moon on another, a triple-axis gravitational tourbillon on the third, and a dial on the fourth that stays upright through a differential gear system as the whole movement rotates. Every satellite also spins on its own axis. Arabo called it revolutionary and the most important fake swiss watch the brand had made, and it is hard to argue with him — there was genuinely nothing else like it.
Billionaire (2015). An 18k white gold case and bracelet entirely covered in 260 carats of diamonds, priced at $18 million. Floyd Mayweather bought one in 2018, which tells you exactly who the target customer is.
Twin Turbo Furious (2018). Twin triple-axis tourbillon, decimal minute repeater, monopusher chronograph and a time-difference calculator in one case. Absurd, and technically very difficult to pull off.
Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon (2020). A working W16 engine animation inside the case — 16 titanium pistons that pump, two turbochargers, two exhausts — under a 30-degree inclined tourbillon. It took about a year of development and 578 components.
Epic X. The model that quietly matters most for normal buyers. It is the closest thing the brand has to an entry point, and it is the piece most ambassadors actually wear day to day.
God of Time (2026). A tourbillon completing a full rotation every four seconds — a claimed world record for speed — showing that the brand still wants the headlines.
So What Is Jacob & Co. Actually Known For?
Five things, and only one of them is “diamonds.”
Jewelry-grade stone setting on watches. Not bezel bling — structural use of gemstones, including the proprietary 288-facet Jacob Cut.
Complications you can watch move. Rotating arms, pumping pistons, a functioning roulette wheel (the Casino Tourbillon , 2023). Jacob & Co. understands that a complication nobody can see is a wasted complication.
Pop-culture fluency. Batman (with Warner Bros. and DC), Fast & Furious , graffiti artist Alec Monopoly, G-Dragon, Cristiano Ronaldo, Donnie Yen, Milla Jovovich. Few watch brands move that comfortably between hip-hop, sport and Hollywood. chrono-wrist.co.uk
Very low volume, made-to-order mentality. These are not watches you walk in and buy off the shelf.
Speed to market. First to NFTs, first to crypto, first to a $20M one-off. The brand behaves like a streetwear label with a Geneva atelier attached.
Jacob & Co. Price Guide: What You Will Actually Pay
Prices move constantly and depend heavily on specification and stone count, so treat these as orientation rather than a quote. Confirm anything current with an authorized retailer. perfect replica watches
Tier
Representative models
Typical range
Entry
Epic X (steel/titanium), pre-owned Five Time Zone
Roughly 8,000 – 25,000
Mid
Epic X Chrono, Epic SF24
Roughly 30,000 – 200,000+
Haute horlogerie
Astronomia family, Twin Turbo Furious, Casino Tourbillon
Roughly 300,000 – 800,000+
Collaborations
Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon, Fast & Furious Twin Turbo
$280,000+ at launch ; significantly more on the secondary market
One-offs
Billionaire, Billionaire Timeless Treasure
18M – 20M+
The interesting thing about that table is how wide it is. Very few brands sell credible watches at 10,000 and also at 20,000,000. Jacob & Co. does, and it is the single most useful fact for a first-time buyer: you do not need a nine-figure budget to get into the brand, but you do need to decide which Jacob & Co. you are buying into.
If you are comparing price-to-substance more broadly, our breakdown of the best luxury watches under $10,000 is a fair counterweight to the Astronomia end of the range.
Who Should Buy a Jacob & Co. — and Who Should Not
Buy one if you want a watch that opens conversations, you genuinely love gem-setting and moving sculpture, and you already own the “serious” pieces. Jacob & Co. makes no attempt at discretion, and for the right buyer that is the entire point.
Do not buy one if you care mainly about resale value, traditional Geneva finishing, or movement lineage dating back decades. The brand’s secondary-market performance is uneven, and the depreciation on a complicated stone-set piece can be brutal. If value retention matters to you, read our guide to luxury watch brands that hold their value before committing.
That distinction is worth sitting with: Jacob & Co. is closer to buying art than buying an instrument. Price the enjoyment, not the exit.
How to Buy One Without Getting Burned
Low production plus high stone value equals a tempting target for counterfeiters. A few rules:
Buy from an authorized dealer or the brand’s own boutiques. If a “grey market” price looks 40% under everyone else, assume a problem.
Insist on the full set — box, papers, and any gemmological certificates. On stone-set pieces, the certificates are part of the value.
Run the serial number past the brand before money changes hands.
Use authenticated platforms with escrow for secondary-market purchases.
Our full checklist in how to authenticate a luxury watch before you buy covers this in more depth.
Jacob & Co. FAQ
Is Jacob & Co. a real luxury watch brand?
Yes. It began as a New York diamond house in 1986 and has produced genuine high complications in Switzerland since 2007 — including the first vertical tourbillon with a 31-day power reserve (the Quenttin) and the multi-axis Astronomia platform.
How much is the cheapest Jacob & Co. watch?
The Epic X is the practical entry point, generally landing in the high four figures to low five figures depending on material. Pre-owned Five Time Zone pieces can be cheaper, but they are quartz fashion watches and not the same proposition.
Is Jacob & Co. better than Richard Mille?
They are solving different problems. Richard Mille is an engineering-led brand built around materials science and extreme lightness — see our explainer on why Richard Mille watches cost so much . Jacob & Co. is a jewelry-led brand built around spectacle and stones. Nobody buying an Astronomia is cross-shopping an RM 011 on spec.
Do Jacob & Co. watches hold their value?
Generally weaker than the blue-chip Swiss maisons. Limited collaborations and one-offs can do well, but broad-model stone-set pieces typically depreciate. Buy for wear, not for return.
Where are Jacob & Co. watches made?
The company is headquartered in Manhattan, with a Swiss arm — Jacob & Co. SA — established in Geneva in 2007, and boutiques including Rue du Rhône in Geneva and, since 2025, Seoul.
The Verdict
Jacob & Co. is not trying to be the watch you pass down quietly. It is trying to be the watch people remember. On that brief, it succeeds more consistently than almost any brand at any price — which is why a diamond dealer from the Diamond District now sells $20 million watches.
If that sounds like you, start with the Epic X, learn the catalogue, and only then look up at the Astronomia. If it does not, that is fine too: there is a whole world of British-made tool watches built for hard use at the opposite end of the temperament scale.
