The first coloured Billionaire is one of the most expensive timepieces ever made
In a word: Wow. This showstopper is so unapologetically audacious, it leaves us completely gobsmacked. Never mind the eyewatering price tag of US$20 million. At a time when quiet luxury is well on its way to becoming 2023’s biggest trend, trust the original king of maximalism to remind you how it’s really done.
Jacob & Co, by its own admission, almost dried up the market for exceptionally large and high-quality yellow diamonds to complete the Billionaire Timeless Treasure. It might have taken three and a half years, but the big pay-off is absolute colour uniformity, perfect quality consistence and brilliant luminosity.
Creating this high jewellery watchmaking piece takes all the Manufacture know-how and then some. Eight hundred and eighty carats of rough yellow diamonds become 216.89 after thousands of hours of cutting to the challenging Asscher cut. The square shape with inclining corners requires 57 facets and demands much larger roughs than the typical brilliant cut.
Each of the 425 gems that make up the Billionaire Timeless Treasure has a designated place on the underlying yellow gold lattice structure. The precious stones are laid out individually with an invisible setting to form a mosaic of dimension and scale that radiates from the case and diminishes in regular increments as they near the clasp.
The yellow hue is enhanced by the unique green glow of tsavorites. A total of 76—both emerald-cut and kite-cut—surround the calibre JCAM39. This special, ultra-slim Billionaire skeleton tourbillon movement is adorned with another 57 yellow baguette-cut diamonds.
In a statement, CEO Benjamin Arabov acknowledges the superlative work of the brand’s Geneva workshop. “We’ve combined our expertise in high jewellery with our skills in high watchmaking and used our drive to achieve what has never been done before,” he says. “So we’ve created a unique piece that outshines every other high jewellery timepiece in opulence, exclusivity and diamond quality.”
