Watch Paparazzi

Designer Mariam AlYassi spotted wearing Jacob & Co

Dubai Watch Week 2023 delivered no shortage of noteworthy wrist sightings, but UAE-based designer Mariam AlYassi — known professionally as @mim_design — delivered one of the more technically compelling moments: a Jacob & Co Brilliant Mystery in 18k white gold, fully loaded with brilliant-cut diamonds and finished on a vivid blue crocodile strap.

The Brilliant Mystery is one of Jacob & Co's most architecturally distinctive creations. Its core conceit is the near-total concealment of the timekeeping mechanism: the hours and minutes are indicated by two separate diamond-set arrows that appear to orbit freely between the main dial disc and the surrounding bezel, with no visible connection to any movement component. The illusion is achieved through an elaborate system of sapphire discs and a proprietary gear train that Jacob & Co developed in-house. The case diameter sits at 38mm, crafted in 18k white gold, and the movement — Calibre JCFM01 — beats at 21,600 vph with a 40-hour power reserve.

On this particular reference, the numbers are stark: 298 brilliant-cut diamonds at 6.50 carats pave the case, while 145 additional stones cover the bezel and dial surface. The result is a watch with almost no visible metal or dial architecture — just concentric rings of white diamonds and the two floating time-indication arrows. The blue alligator strap provides the only chromatic contrast, and it reads as a deliberate design choice rather than an afterthought.

Mariam AlYassi's appearance at Dubai Watch Week in this piece is contextually coherent — as a designer with a strong aesthetic identity in the Gulf luxury space, wearing a watch that is itself a design object rather than a conventional timepiece signals fluency in both worlds. The Brilliant Mystery occupies a niche where haute joaillerie and independent watchmaking overlap, and it tends to attract collectors who approach watches as wearable sculpture.

At a retail price of $84,000, the Jacob & Co Brilliant Mystery full-diamond white gold sits within the brand's mid-to-upper tier. Grey market activity on fully set variants is relatively thin, which keeps secondary prices close to retail — a sign of genuine demand rather than speculative flipping. For collectors in the Gulf region, where diamond-set complications carry particular cultural resonance, this reference remains one of Jacob & Co's most coherent propositions.