© Jacob & Co
Subtle elegance, refined yet restrained lines and the barest hint of luxury: just a few of the things that have nothing at all to do with Jacob & Co. Their brand of watchmaking is more extroverted than a Hollywood starlet with low self-esteem and a drug problem and, whether it works for you or not, you have to hand it to them; Jacob & Co know how to make an impact.
For example, the Epic X Skeleton is already a statement piece. The big case complete with spiderlike lugs, the highly skeletonised movement showing all the inner working, the overall feeling of sheer size, the base model in titanium is already eye-catching. Now replace a good part of the metal with gold and even more of it with precious gems and you have Jacob & Co’s latest bejewelled edition.
Yep. Subtlety really isn’t their thing. Not that the design isn’t nuanced of course; the way the lines of the lugs flow onto and across the dial is even more emphasised by orange sapphires. The unusual colour of the stones also works perfectly with the more standard baguette diamonds in the bezel and the yellow gold halfway between them colour wise.
The inclusion of the sapphires means that the watch isn’t quite as severely skeletonised, but you can still clearly see the manual wind JCAM03 Caliber. That’s a good thing too, given the efforts Jacob & Co have gone to in creating the vertically-aligned movement. The second hand might not be the easiest to read in the world, but if you insist on having a tourbillon you’re obviously going to use it.
We can’t help but love Jacob & Co. They’re ludicrous in the best possible way. Even if you’re not particularly inclined to wear enough stones to make Gemfields jealous, you have to admire their audacity – an audacity embodied by the Epic X Skeleton.
