Watch Paparazzi

Watchmaker Jacob Arabo spotted wearing Jacob & Co

At what appears to be a black-tie gala, Jacob & Co founder Jacob Arabo raised his wrist to reveal perhaps the most personal timepiece in his collection: the Caviar Tourbillon Ruby, one of only three examples ever produced. Arabo, dressed in a navy velvet tuxedo with a satin bow tie, wore the watch with the quiet confidence of a man who supervised every facet of its construction — because he did.

The Jacob & Co Caviar Tourbillon Ruby is built on an 18k rose gold round case that is entirely consumed by invisibly set baguette-cut rubies. The term 'invisible setting' — originally pioneered by Van Cleef & Arpels in the 1930s as Serti Mystérieux — refers to the technique of mounting stones into a metal rail system so precisely that no prongs or bezels interrupt the surface. On the Caviar Tourbillon, this treatment extends across the bezel, lugs, crown, and full dial surface, demanding months of lapidary and setting work on stones individually selected to match in hue and saturation. The result is a monolithic crimson disc broken only by the open-worked tourbillon aperture at six o'clock.

The movement is a manual-winding caliber developed in-house at Jacob & Co's Geneva manufacture. The flying tourbillon — meaning the cage appears to float without an upper bridge — rotates on a 60-second cycle and is visible from the dial. Flip the case and the exhibition sapphire caseback exposes movement bridges and plates set with diamonds, a signature Jacob & Co flourish that transforms the movement architecture into jewelry in its own right.

From a collector standpoint, three-piece production figures place this watch in rarefied company. The Caviar Tourbillon Ruby sits at the apex of Jacob & Co's haute joaillerie watchmaking, a segment where wearable art and mechanical complexity converge. The choice of rubies — among the most prized of all colored gemstones — combined with the invisible setting elevates production cost and craftsmanship difficulty substantially above comparable diamond-set references.

The official retail price of $1,500,000 USD reflects the stone cost, setting labor, and movement complexity in equal measure. With a production run of three, grey-market comparables are essentially nonexistent; provenance and private treaty govern any secondary transaction. For Arabo to wear this piece publicly is both a brand statement and a genuine expression of pride in the work — one of the few instances where the watchmaker and the collector are the same person.