Rapper Jay-Z spotted wearing a Jacob & Co

At what appears to be a private event or nightclub setting, Jay-Z was photographed with two Jacob & Co timepieces stacked on the same wrist — a statement that encapsulates both the rapper's long relationship with the New York-based jeweler-watchmaker and his unapologetic approach to personal adornment. The double-wrist stack, rare even among the most extravagant collectors, signals a deliberate choice: these are not worn as instruments but as wearable sculpture.

The first piece — the Jacob & Co Limited Edition Rose Gold Diamond Tourbillon — is among the most technically ambitious works the brand has produced. The 47mm rose gold case is fully pavé-set with white diamonds, continuing across the dial where the stones frame a hand-wound flying tourbillon movement visible through the heavily jeweled chapter ring. The limited nature of the edition, combined with the labor intensity of the diamond setting, places this watch firmly in haute joaillerie-horlogerie territory. Retail pricing in the region of £195,000 (approximately $245,000 USD at time of issue) reflects that positioning.

The second piece — the Jacob & Co Five Time Zone Skull — is arguably the brand's most iconic consumer-facing reference. Built on the classic 47mm FTZ case architecture, it displays five simultaneous time zones via sub-dials, with the full dial surface set in white pavé diamonds and a skull-and-crossbones motif rendered in black diamonds. The movement is a quartz caliber, keeping the complexity in the dial art rather than the mechanics. The Skull FTZ retails at approximately £28,500 and has appeared on the wrists of numerous hip-hop artists, cementing its status as a cultural artifact within that world.

Jay-Z's association with Jacob & Co dates back to the early 2000s, when founder Jacob Arabo became the de facto jeweler of New York's rap elite. The relationship is not merely transactional — Jay-Z has referenced luxury watches broadly in his lyrics as signifiers of arrival and self-determination. Wearing the Tourbillon and Skull FTZ together reads less as excess and more as fluency: he knows exactly what he's wearing and why.

On the secondary market, the diamond Tourbillon commands strong premiums given its limited production, while the Skull FTZ trades actively around its retail price point, remaining one of Jacob & Co's most liquid references among collectors with an appetite for bold, pop-art-inflected horology.