Watch Paparazzi

Basketball player LeBron James spotted wearing Jacob & Co

LeBron James stepped out in characteristically understated streetwear — a brown graphic hoodie, olive trousers, and a red cap — but his left wrist told a very different story. The King was wearing an 18K yellow gold Jacob & Co Five Time Zone, factory-set from case to bracelet with an estimated 30-plus carats of yellow and white diamonds, a combination that transforms a bold watch into an outright jewellery statement.

The Jacob & Co Five Time Zone (reference family JC-FTZ) was introduced in the early 2000s and became one of the defining watches of the bling era, yet it has outlasted that cultural moment through sheer horological conviction. The oversized cushion-adjacent case — measuring approximately 47mm — houses a Swiss quartz movement powering four independent subsidiary dials labelled New York, L.A., Paris, and Tokyo, arranged at the cardinal points of the main dial. A date window sits at the six-o'clock axis. The fully paved dial, bezel, lugs, and integrated bracelet in this example are set with vivid fancy yellow diamonds accenting round brilliant white diamonds on the subsidiary chapter rings, a combination Jacob & Co calls a 'factory set' configuration, meaning it left the Geneva workshops in this state rather than being aftermarket-modified.

From a collector standpoint, factory diamond Jacob & Co pieces carry a significant premium over aftermarket stones — provenance and insurance documentation matter, and resale is considerably cleaner. The Five Time Zone occupies a unique position: it is simultaneously a quartz watch and a six-figure jewellery object, a combination that purists dismiss and connoisseurs of wearable art respect.

LeBron James has long been one of the most watch-literate athletes in professional sport, his collection spanning Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, and Audemars Piguet. The choice of Jacob & Co here reads less as a fashion moment and more as a deliberate nod to the culture that shaped basketball's relationship with luxury watches throughout the 2000s.

List pricing for this fully diamond-set Five Time Zone sits around £125,000 in the UK, translating to approximately $155,000–$160,000 USD at current exchange rates. Grey-market values for authenticated factory-set examples remain firm given the high stone cost, typically trading within 10–15% of retail.