Politician Turki Al-Sheikh spotted wearing a Jacob & Co

At a formal Saudi cultural event — a Quran recitation competition bearing the hallmarks of an official government function — Turki Al-Sheikh held up a placard bearing the event branding, his wrist quietly revealing one of the most complex and expensive wristwatches currently in production: the Jacob & Co Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon in black DLC-coated titanium. The contrast between the ceremonial setting and the watch's sheer mechanical extravagance tells you everything about Al-Sheikh's collector sensibility.

The Jacob & Co Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon, reference BU110.21.AE.AB.ABRUA, is powered by the JCAM37 manually wound movement, which is unlike virtually anything else in horology. The movement's centrepiece is a scaled replica of the Bugatti Chiron's W16 engine, featuring 16 cylinders arranged in a W configuration, a functioning crankshaft, and four piston groups that reciprocate at 6,000 RPM when the crown-mounted engine-start complication is activated. The watch also integrates a triple-axis tourbillon, a 60-second flying tourbillon at the movement's apex, and a power reserve of approximately 50 hours. The black DLC titanium case measures approximately 54mm × 44mm, shaped precisely to echo the Chiron's bodywork, with four oversized crown pushers styled as exhaust pipes.

For collectors, the Chiron Tourbillon represents a philosophical statement as much as a horological one. Jacob & Co and Bugatti jointly hold design patents on the engine architecture, and the 126-piece production limit directly references the 1,600 horsepower of the Chiron — 126 being the power output per cylinder. The movement alone took years of joint engineering development between Jacob & Co's Geneva atelier and Bugatti's team, making this a genuine co-creation rather than a licensing exercise.

Turki Al-Sheikh is no casual luxury consumer. As the architect of Saudi Arabia's entertainment liberalisation under Vision 2030, he oversees a portfolio that includes WWE partnerships, boxing promotions, and major music festivals. His watch collection is known to include multiple pieces in the seven-figure range, and the Chiron Tourbillon is entirely consistent with a collector who favours mechanical complexity over conventional prestige.

At a list price of approximately $312,000, the Chiron Tourbillon commands a significant premium over comparable ultra-complicated watches from traditional Swiss maisons. On the secondary market, black DLC examples have traded at or above retail given the limited availability and the watch's crossover appeal among both horology enthusiasts and hypercar collectors — a Venn diagram that Jacob & Co has learned to exploit with exceptional precision.