One of the standouts at Watches & Wonders this year was Jacob & Co., which astonished the attendees of the watch show with a bevy of some out-of-this-world creations, not the least of which was the Jacob & Co. Billionaire Timeless Treasure.
The original Billionaire was created as a bespoke project and launched in 2015 as a unique piece. This year, the unique, museum-worthy Billionaire Timeless Treasure is another diamond encrusted watch like no other, one that took three and a half years to realize, with much of that time just sourcing enough yellow diamonds of the same color and quality to complete the project.
“An unprecedented achievement in the history of high jewelry watchmaking,” the new Billionaire is, indeed, a masterpiece that demanded “absolute color uniformity and perfect quality consistence” to execute. So much so that, in its treasure hunt across the globe, Jacob & Co. practically dried up the market of all exceptionally large and high quality yellow diamonds.
According to Seraina Wicht, head of gemology watch production at Jacob & Co., white diamonds outnumber yellow diamonds 10,000 to 1, making the latter impossibly rare and infinitely more expensive. In fact, the rocks in question, which are yellow in color due to the presence of nitrogen within their carbon structure, have become even more expensive over the past twelve months, especially at the size the Billionaire Timeless Treasure required.
In the end a whopping 880 carats of rough yellow diamonds were sourced throughout the globe, not a single gem of which was rejected because of its price. Only the color and clarity of the diamond led to its inclusion or downfall. Which is why it took a staff of ten, who were in charge searching, sorting, and the cutting of the gems to source 880 carats of the rarest and most opulent rough yellow diamonds (some of which reached 2.50 carats), almost the entirety of the three and a half years of production.
The inherent proportions of the demanding Asscher-Cut did not help matters. A squared shape with inclining corners, the Asscher-Cut is more of a 57-facet octagon, which demands much larger roughs than the typical brilliant cut. The rocks totaling 880 carats were, thus, meticulously cut into a total of 425 Asscher-Cut Fancy Yellow, and Fancy Intense Yellow diamonds totaling 216.89 carats.
“With white diamonds, we receive lots with dozens or hundreds of gems,” says Seraina Wicht. “For Billionaire Timeless Treasure, we were receiving stones one by one, two by two, three at the most. It happened several times that we spent several weeks without receiving a single one that was worthy of the piece.”
But here’s the rub, since color uniformity and perfect quality consistence were the priority, an unprecedented amount of waste was incurred when several large stones had to be cut to “fit” the overall color scheme. Indeed, the gems were not placed according to their size but their color. Never the less, each gem still had its designated place: 46 of the larger ones made up the case for a total of 55.15 ct., while the first rows of the 159 ct-bracelet also demanded hefty gems, with their individual size diminishing in perfectly regular increments as they neared the clasp.
“Never before have such stones been cut at such a high level of complexity as the Asscher-Cut in such large quantities for a single piece.”
Another team of 15 gem-setters produced a gold lattice that allowed all the stones to be invisibly set with the goal to create a singular mosaic where each stone has a specific part to play. The result is astonishing with the “band” looking like a single textured piece from a distance, and held together by anything other than what they have in common. Oh, and believe it or not, this skeletonized tourbillion watch can actually tell the time as well.
Indeed the lavishness of the Billionaire Timeless Treasure is matched only by its price tag: $20 million USD, each one backed up by impeccable quality, skill and the unyielding will that comes from being “inspired by the impossible.” Indeed, a divine undertaking of biblical proportions, never before has a timepiece been so lavishly set with so many high quality and large yellow diamonds. Never before have such stones been cut at such a high level of complexity as the Asscher-Cut in such large quantities for a single piece. And never has a watchmaker been as patient and resolute in its quest for quality and color consistence.
And that’s not all: the gems surrounding the movement had to be longer and thinner to fit the inner ring (the flange) that connects case to movement. Since it’s impossible to maintain the color intensity of yellow diamonds with those specific dimensions the Fancy Yellow and Fancy Intense Yellow color of the diamonds had to be enhanced by the unique green glow of 76 tsavorite gems, while the 167-part Billionaire skeleton tourbillon JCAM39 movement itself is adorned with another 57 yellow baguette-cut diamonds, the one-minute tourbillon regulator of which runs at 3Hz with the autonomy of 72 hours when fully wound. And did we mention the crown set with a 0.57-carat rose-cut yellow diamond?
“We’ve browsed the entire world for three and a half years in search of an unprecedented number of perfect gems,” says Jacob & Co. CEO Benjamin Arabov. “We’ve gathered them here, in our Geneva headquarters, where each one was scrutinized at rough stage, at cut stage, before and after setting. The incredible work done by our gem-setters happened entirely here, in Geneva. We’ve combined our expertise in high jewelry with our skills in high watchmaking and used our drive to achieve what has never been done before. So we’ve created a unique piece that outshines every other high jewelry timepiece in opulence, exclusivity and diamond quality.”
The coolest little detail of the watch though is perhaps the least obvious one: flip the watch over to view the movement through the sapphire caseback and you’ll find the word “billionaire” engraved at the bottom of the case with a smiley face in place of the letter “o.” This suggests that even though this is quite obviously a seriously frivolous piece, the watchmakers know it and responded accordingly.
This begs the question: just how far are you willing to splurge on a fancy timepiece? For the 1% of the 1-percenters of this world, “anything” is probably the answer. Which is why as of February 2023, a total of twenty-one Billionaire timepieces had been crafted and sold either directly to private collectors or to the most high-end watch retailers on the planet. All, that is, except one, which made its “public,” worldwide debut in Geneva last March.
