Luxury watchmaker Jacob & Co. is an independent watch marque, renowned for its exquisite watches that esteemed horologists hold high up in their collections. Following the success in high-quality jewelry watches, Jacob & Co. has expanded its Astronomia multi-axis tourbillon art collection with a 3D engraved and hand-painted menagerie of animals – real and mythical – under a sapphire crystal dome in 18k gold casing.
The Astronomia Tourbillon is a series of cutting-edge timepieces that both intrinsically and from within, elevate the art of watchmaking above the Earth. The collection is a “poetic visual rendering of the celestial world,” and features four satellites – a rotating magnesium globe, an in-house gravitational tourbillon, one-carat 288-faceted diamond, and a time dial – all of which can be seen rotating around the dial. With the rare 3D engraving of dragons, phoenix, serpents, monkeys, lions, and tigers amid others, the Swiss brand has been able to create several Astronomias unlike anything seen before in the horological world.
3D engraving is seen in a host of the Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon such as the Astronomia Cobra, Astronomia Dragon, Astronomia Phoenix, Astronomia Art Tigers, etc., which combine engraving and miniature painting. Astronomia dial is an exquisite gallery of a hand-engraved dragon, cobra, and other sculptures that seem entangled within the tourbillon movement and give the timepieces a symbolic character that the watch collectors have turned to repeatedly. These designs are extremely cumbersome to achieve – for instance, the cobra sculpture is conceived over six months with the first three going into finishing the 3D engraves inside the solid casing and another three months seeing an artesian painstakingly chisel, hand-paint the piece of art.
Each of these extraordinary timepieces is, therefore, an embodiment of uncompromised attention to detail, which is immediately evident at the first glance. For collectors who do not fancy the wildlife but relish the cityscapes, Jacob & Co. also has miniature renditions of key landmarks engraved on Astronomia dials. For instance, the handmade and hand-painted Moscow timepiece features 3D-engraved miniatures of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the Bolshoi Theatre, and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The watchmaker can customize watches of all the great cities of the world to ensure every collector can have his city replica in his collection.
Designer: Jacob & Co.
