The Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon Watch Is A King-Sized Tribute To A Revolutionary Hypercar
Featuring a V16 “engine” sculpted from a single piece of sapphire and a subdial “dashboard,” the timepiece honors Bugatti’s next-gen Tourbillon.
Given it’s name and the chronograph-inspired analog gauges, there was zero doubt that Bugatti’s next-gen hypercar would spawn a companion luxury timepiece by Jacob & Co.
The avant-garde watchmaker specializing in unapologetically bold timepieces—including this Chiron-honoring model—glorifies an early contender for automobile of the decade with a watch that “looks like no other, wears like no other and works like no other. Instead, it looks and works like Bugatti’s latest hyper sports car.” A king-sized, Bugatti-shaped 52 x 44 mm black titanium case features a front grille flanked by two side radiator inlets and two sizable sapphire openings inspired by the car’s side windows.
More automotive references are apparent when viewing the dial, which Jacob & Co. has dubbed the “dashboard.” A series a three subdials stream across the top half of this horological dash: the leftmost showcases the 30-second flying tourbillon, Jacob & Co.’s quickest version of the gravity-countering mechanization to date. The center subdial is a near replica of the Tourbillon hypercar’s rev counter and speedo, reimagined to indicate hour and minute. The right subdial displays power reserve like a car’s fuel gauge.
But the diadem of the design is undoubtedly the “engine,” which was painstakingly sculpted from a huge single block of transparent sapphire. As a testament to the revolutionary V16 that will help push the hybrid Tourbillon’s 1,800 horsepower to all four wheels, Jacob & Co. drilled 16 cylinders to house pistons driven by a single-axis crankshaft—among the largest and most intricate watch parts ever crafted, according to the brand. The crystal V16 engine block even has its own set of “exhaust manifolds” that are connected via bundles of gold-finished or polished steel pipes.
Uniquely, the watch also features “jumping retrograde timekeeping,” a process Jacob & Co. outlines below:
In the center of the dashboard, the hour and minute counter is completely unique and extraordinarily complex. Both the hour hand and the minute hand are retrograde. After they complete a 270-degree arc, when they finish their own cycle, they jump back to zero and start anew. The hour scale doesn’t start at 12 like the usual dials, but instead starts at zero, like an rpm counter.
Jacob & Co.
What’s more, each hand is jumping. Every 60 minutes, the blue hand jumps to the next hour and stays there until the next one is up. In the space left open by the jumping hands, between 0 and 60 minutes, lies the legendary Bugatti logo
The first 150 Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon timepieces rendered in black titanium are priced at $340,000 each. Another 100 will likely cost more, as the brand plans to add colored precious metals and jewelry to its high-octane creation. Inquire at Jacob & Co.’s website.