Rapper Timati spotted wearing a Jacob & Co

Russian rapper and entrepreneur Timati was recently photographed sporting what may be the single most audacious wristwatch in his already formidable collection: a Jacob & Co Rasputin Tourbillon Minute Repeater Automaton, classified as a Piece Unique and cased in 18K white gold, smothered in 290 baguette-cut diamonds and finished with one heart-shaped ruby. The sighting underlines Timati's long-standing affinity for statement horology at the extreme end of the market.

The Rasputin is Jacob & Co's most complex and narratively charged creation to date. Beneath the fully diamond-pavé dial — which in this Piece Unique configuration features baguette stones set in a geometric cascade across both the movement bridges and the outer bezel — beats a manually wound tourbillon movement with a cathedral minute repeater. The complication's chiming mechanism serves a theatrical purpose beyond acoustics: when activated via the slide on the case band, a pair of miniature curtains at 6 o'clock swing open to expose an animated erotic automaton scene, a direct reference to the historical mythology surrounding Grigori Rasputin. The single heart-shaped ruby, visible at 12 o'clock, marks the emotional and symbolic apex of the composition.

Jacob & Co debuted the Rasputin concept as a limited and bespoke platform, with each example treated essentially as a unique commission. The movement architecture draws on the brand's in-house grand complication expertise, combining a flying tourbillon regulation with a striking mechanism — two complications that individually demand exceptional hand-finishing, let alone in combination. Full factory diamond-setting of 290 baguette stones across the case, lugs and dial represents hundreds of additional hours of lapidary work, ensuring no two examples are precisely alike in stone layout.

Timati, born Timur Yunusov in Moscow, is one of Russia's most commercially successful hip-hop artists and a serial luxury watch collector with a publicly documented taste for ultra-high-end pieces. The Rasputin carries obvious cultural resonance for a Russian owner: the historical figure of Rasputin remains one of the most mythologized personalities in Russian imperial history, and wearing this particular watch amounts to a wearable cultural statement as much as a horological one.

As a Piece Unique, this reference carries no fixed retail price in the conventional sense. The UK list price has been cited at approximately £1.4 million — equivalent to roughly $1.75 million USD at current exchange — though bespoke commissions of this nature are typically negotiated privately. Grey-market comparables for Jacob & Co grand complication Piece Uniques are essentially nonexistent, as these watches rarely if ever return to secondary market channels. For collectors, the Rasputin represents the outer boundary of what independent watchmaking will attempt.