The driving force of Jacob & Co. is creativity. From his earliest career in the jewelry and watch industry, Jacob Arabo has been designing beautiful and innovative products. The breadth of Jacob & Co.’s products shows the brand’s insatiable need to produce amazing works that the world has never seen before.
“I must create,” Mr. Arabo said. “My dream has always been to invent something that no one has done before. For the brand, it is to make the impossible a reality.” Jacob & Co.’s mission is to create beautiful, dynamic and unique watchmaking and jewelry art works.
Jacob Arabo, the founder and chairman of Jacob & Co., came to the United States from the former Soviet Union because his family wanted a better life. His father and mother immigrated to the United States with Jacob and his four sisters, but they could only take them with them, and Jacob quickly set out to make the most of this opportunity.
Jacob Arabo started his journey in the field of fine jewellery and watches as an apprentice as a watchmaker in his first summer in the United States, and it was there that he developed a keen interest in watches .
“When I was 13 years old, my father gave me a watch as a gift. It showed two time zones and had a gilded world map on the dial,” Mr. Arabo recalled. “It has two mechanical movements. This is where the idea of a five-time zone watch came from. During my apprenticeship, I learned how to take apart the watch and how many parts it has. This really touched me, even for simple watches. It’s also so complicated. For me, I fell in love with watchmaking at the time and I began to dream of making my own watches. My experience there inspired me, and it still inspires me to this day.”
Soon after, Mr. Arabo used the immigration program to receive jewelry training. He found a job at a local factory for $125 a week and lied about his age to secure the job. He is good at assembling jewelry, but assembling other people’s designs is not satisfactory to him. Jacob & Co. ASTRONOMIA TYPHOON
“I’m tired of making this mass market jewelry,” Mr. Arabo explained. “I want to make it more fashionable. There are five women in my family, my sisters and my mother. I am always fixing their earrings and bracelets. My hands are very good. I know I can do better than I work. The company is doing better.”
Therefore, after work, he began to design his own works and make them, using the temporary working area in his bedroom. His design became popular, and he began to develop a customer base. Soon, his side business earned more money than his work.
Soon after, with a solid customer base, Jacob quit his daily work, opened a small booth in the bustling diamond district of New York City, and began designing collections for jewelry brands and private clients.
“My vision has always been good,” Mr. Arabo explained in detail. “I think this is the photography training I received in the former Soviet Union. I only know how to design things-I even saw the finished product before I even painted it.”
In 1986, Mr. Arabo launched his own luxury brand Jacob & Co. He is making a name for himself, but in his mind, he still thinks of watches. “At first I focused on jewelry, but the watch was in my mind,” he said. “I keep telling myself that when I grow up, I will be a watch.”
After Mr. Arabo succeeded in his jewelry business, he returned to the watch industry. He went to Switzerland to find suppliers to realize his dream of making high-end watches, but was coldly treated by the Swiss.
“Swiss hawkers ignored me,” he recalled. “It is very difficult to establish a relationship with any of them because they are very rude and the price is too expensive, which is almost a punishment to Americans. I decided to start without a simple quartz watch from the Swiss. I made a five-time zone watch. When you want to use a different bezel and strap, you can change the look of the watch. I still wear the first one I made. That watch really revolutionized fashion watches.”
A photo of supermodel Naomi Campbell with a five-time zone watch put his company on the watch map. At the same time, his jewelry business was very successful, and celebrity customers were arguing about his unique design.
A few years later, Mr. Arabo decided to try Switzerland again, this time he found a better reception. He worked with a boutique watch company to design the world’s first vertical tourbillon with an excellent power reserve of 31 days.
Arabo didn’t name this spectacular watch, so when a customer walked into a Jacob & Co. store and asked Arabo about the unusual design, Arabo said, “If you give me a deposit, I’ll name it after you. It.” He agreed, and the name of the new watch was Quenttin. Later, the film director Quentin Tarantino picked up his Quenttin and put it on the cover of Vogue. With a retail price of US$360,000, Quenttin established Mr. Arabo’s watchmaking intentions-to make works that the world has never seen before.
“I decided to delve into serious complications and invent actions that I had never done before,” Mr. Arabo explained in detail. “SF24, Epic X skeleton, flying tourbillon rectangular watch, and then I started with Astronomia. My staff told me not to invest money in Luca Soprana and his design studio Atelier 7h38. Everyone opposed it, but I decided to do so. And, unlike many other Swiss watchmakers, Luca says “yes” to astronomy.
Although Mr. Arabo’s creations are adventurous and unique to the fine watchmaking industry, Jacob & Co. carefully looks for solutions rooted in traditional watchmaking. Although high complexity often subverts tradition, the brand is still applying the basic concepts of clocks and watches.
As a jeweler, Mr. Arabo purchases rare and excellent gems from the eyes of an artist. His creativity and inspiration are combined with the best jewelry making techniques. The brand was inspired by turning the impossible into reality and opened up a unique niche market in the field of jewelry and fine watchmaking.
All along, Jacob & Co. has been working with the best people, including celebrities, supercar manufacturer Bugatti and legendary football player Lionel Messi.
“I want to be remembered as a pioneer,” Mr. Arabo shared. “I am not a technician or engineer, but I am not afraid of investment and development. When it comes to turning my vision into reality, I am fearless.”
Jacob Arabo has gone from tattered to diamonds and tourbillon, and he will not stop anytime soon. The brand is committed to breaking the limits of high-end watches and fine jewelry. In response to the words of the American hero Captain John Paul Jones, Mr. Arabo smiled and said: “I haven’t started creating yet.” Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon
Fearless: Jacob & Co. is not afraid to create watches and jewelry that only exist in dreams.
Pioneering: Jacob & Co. breaks new ground in the field of fine watchmaking, creating new complications and combinations of complications for fine watchmaking, while still using traditional methods to create brand-new timepieces, so it enjoys a well-deserved reputation.
Innovation: Trying new ways of doing things, using different materials, and developing new complex functions are the reasons for Jacob & Co.’s existence-Jacob & Co. will never be satisfied with being the same as everyone else.
Creativity: The Jacob & Co. series is full of radical ideas, showing designs, complications and combinations that break new ground in the field of fine watchmaking and fine jewelry.
Risky: According to the steady Swiss, most of Jacob’s high complications were initially considered “impossible”. However, Jacob & Co. is committed to bringing these ideas-such as SF24, Astronomia, Opera, Twin Turbo and Twin Turbo Furious, etc.-into reality.
Turn the impossible into reality. Jacob Arabo (Jacob Arabo) is committed to creating watches and jewelry that the world has never seen before. Take the Astronomia Collection as an example-a galaxy on the wrist. Many Swiss watchmakers think this idea is “impossible.” Mr. Arabo accepted the challenge and made this timepiece. After many iterations, it became a reality…and it was a success.
Mr. Arabo is not satisfied with making hundreds of identical watches and jewelry. He lives by creativity and innovation, and is always committed to the next breakthrough revolutionary idea. Jacob & Co. is a distinctive watch company that combines American boldness and entrepreneurial spirit with Swiss fine watchmaking and fine jewelry making. Mr. Arabo and his company are involved in two worlds and are committed to changing the status quo.