There are diamond watches. And there are sapphire watches.
And then there is Jacob & Co.
Jacob & Co.’s new Brilliant Flying Tourbillon Baguette Pastel Arlequino is not just a beautiful watch. There’s some seriously impressive mechanical engineering going on inside.
Obviously, there are 366 pastel-colored sapphires — pinks, blues, greens and lavenders — invisibly set across the case, dial, crown and buckle. And those colors haven’t simply been scattered around at random.
The Arlequino pattern is a nod to Arlecchino, the familiar character from the Italian commedia dell’arte, known for his colorful, diamond-patterned costume. But even more interesting to a gemologist, the sapphires weren’t selected just for their different colors. They were specifically chosen to keep them within a similar light tonal range.
Now that’s impressive. But now look a little closer.
See that sparkling circle moving back and forth inside the flying tourbillon?
That’s the balance wheel. And Jacob & Co. has set it with 54 round brilliant-cut diamonds. Now THAT is impressive!
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Photo courtesy of Jacob & Co.
Diamonds — On the Balance Wheel
Putting diamonds on a watch movement isn’t exactly new. But putting them on the balance wheel is another matter entirely. It’s a technological feat that, from a watchmaking standpoint, almost seems like something you shouldn’t even try.
The balance wheel is one of the most important components of a mechanical watch. Together with the hairspring, it forms the regulating organ — essentially the heartbeat of the watch — controlling the release of energy through the escapement and helping determine how accurately the watch keeps time.
Its mass and moment of inertia have to be right on the mark. And it has to be perfectly balanced. Change the weight — or the distribution of that weight — and you change the way the watch runs.
And keep in mind, invisibly setting gemstones into a case or dial is already an extraordinary achievement of gem-setting. But setting 54 tiny diamonds into a balance wheel that has to oscillate with extraordinary precision? That’s another challenge altogether.
Jacob & Co. says the balance wheel had to be specifically designed to accommodate the diamonds while preserving the characteristics necessary for accurate timekeeping. It required the precision of both high watchmaking and high jewelry craftsmanship.
And then it starts moving!
The diamond-set balance wheel oscillates at 3 Hz — 21,600 vibrations per hour — while the flying tourbillon makes one complete revolution every 60 seconds.
So the 54 diamonds aren’t simply sitting there sparkling. The balance wheel is moving back and forth while the entire tourbillon is rotating, constantly changing the angle of those diamonds to the light. Jacob & Co. calls the effect a “luminous halo.”
Take a look and see for yourself.
View the entire watch from front to back, and side to side.
It is really quite something to marvel at.
Video courtesy of Jacob & Co.
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Has This Been Done Before?
Surprisingly, yes.
According to Jacob & Co., Swiss and French watchmakers experimented with setting diamonds directly onto balance wheels in the 1820s and 1830s.
Those watches used cylinder escapements, at a time when deviations of several minutes per day were considered acceptable. As expectations for precision increased, altering the balance wheel became increasingly unacceptable, and gem-setting moved to other parts of the movement.
Jacob & Co. is calling its new creation “the first diamond-set balance wheel in modern watchmaking.”
And we’ll leave the history lesson there. Because there are still 366 sapphires to talk about.
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It’s All About Tone
Look again at the colors. Blue sits next to green. Lavender sits next to pink.
Rather than graduating smoothly from one color into another, Jacob & Co. deliberately placed different hues next to each other. The company says the 366 sapphires were individually selected to have the same “delicate lightness,” allowing all of those contrasting colors to work together as one composition.
And there’s some gemology behind why that works. When gemologists describe color, we look at three basic components: hue, tone and saturation.
Hue is the color — blue, green, pink, purple. Tone describes how light or dark that color appears. And saturation describes the strength or intensity of the color, from dull to vivid.
The hues on the Pastel Arlequino are intentionally different. But by keeping the sapphires within a relatively similar tonal range, no one dark or light area overwhelms the rest of the composition. Imagine putting a significantly darker blue sapphire into the middle of all those pastels. Where would your eyes go? Straight to the dark blue. The same thing could happen with an area that was noticeably lighter than everything surrounding it.
By varying the hues while keeping the tones relatively consistent, the eye can take in the entire watch, rather than being pulled toward individual areas simply because they are much lighter or darker.
The sapphires are also invisibly set, held from beneath so there are no prongs or beads of metal visible across the surface.
That’s a thoughtful bit of gemstone selection — and some pretty impressive gem-setting.
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Photo courtesy of Jacob & Co.
And There Are More Diamonds
Of course there are. This is Jacob & Co.
The 42 mm case is 18K white gold, invisibly set with 194 baguette-cut sapphires weighing approximately 11.03 carats. The case is also set with 32 colorless diamonds weighing approximately 1.67 carats.
The dial adds another 139 baguette-cut sapphires, approximately 6.05 carats, along with 23 colorless diamonds weighing approximately 0.81 carat. The crown carries another 12 sapphires and one colorless diamond, while the buckle is set with another 21 baguette-cut sapphires.
Turn the watch over and the gemstones don’t stop! Visible through the sapphire crystal caseback, the movement bridges are set with 234 round brilliant-cut diamonds weighing approximately 0.69 carat. Do the math and those diamonds average less than one-third of a point each. They’re tiny!
And somewhere among all those sapphires and diamonds are the 54 little diamonds that started this whole conversation. On the balance wheel.
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The Brilliant Flying Tourbillon Baguette Pastel Arlequino
The watch is powered by Jacob & Co.’s new self-winding JCFA02 caliber, a 184-component movement combining a flying tourbillon with a micro-rotor. It has a 72-hour power reserve and operates at 21,600 vibrations per hour.
It is a pièce unique. There is only one.
The price? $693,000.
But with 366 pastel sapphires, hundreds of diamonds, a flying tourbillon and 54 round brilliant-cut diamonds actually set into the balance wheel, perhaps there is only one question left:
We think everything is now gem-encrusted. So where does Jacob & Co. put the diamonds next?
Tap here to see Jacob & Co.’s full collection of one-of-a-kind luxury timepieces.
