Baselworld 2016: Jacob & Co. Unveils Astronomia Sky Triple Axis and Xtreme Tourbillon
It’s another bang-up year for Jacob & Co., the brand that has been offering daring extremes in watches for years. This year, the brand continues to stretch the imagination and bring the incredible to fruition in two new timepieces that will have you lusting to see the watches in person.
Taking the already well-known and much-loved Astronomia to new heights, Jacob & Co unveils a new realm in three-dimensional glory with the Astronomia Sky watch.
While this timepiece may be a third generation of the original Astronomia Tourbillon that was first introduced in 2014, it is a totally new rendition – a reconfigured movement and a new complication. In fact, the Astronomia Sky Triple Axis Gravitational Tourbillon offers astronomical sidereal time display (tracking solar time and calendar time), a celestial sky dial, a three-dimensional moon and a center globe of the Earth.
As if all of this – depicted in mind-blowing beauty – is not enough, the watch is also equipped with a patented gravitation triple axis tourbillon whose three axes move at different speeds: 60 seconds, five minutes and 20 minutes. This patent, as well as a patent on the differential system, was previously garnered with the original 50mm Astronomia, but they have been reconfigured and miniaturized for this newest watch to fit inside the 47mm case.
The multi-axis rotating system offers an important function on each of the main axis, including the gravitational tourbillon, opposite the hours and minutes display in small dial format. On another axis, a 288-faceted “Jacob” cut orange sapphire disk represents the moon of that and sits opposite n orbital second hand.
Says Jacob Arabo, Founder and CEO of Jacob & Co., “It is a very complicated new timepiece. Additionally, whereas in the previous Astronomia, there were three crystal windows, this watch is fitted with one entire piece of sapphire, allowing for views all the way around. It also features a three dimensional Earth globe in the center. It … is unbelievable.”
The thing is, the unveiling of the Astronomia Sky would have been enough to have the fairgoers drooling, but Jacob & Co. didn’t stop there. The brand also unveils an all-new Xtreme Tourbillon – a Twin Triple Axis Tourbillon Decimal Minute Repeater.
The world premiere timepiece offers two triple-axis tourbillons side by side on the lower portion of the unusually shaped case and dial. The twin tourbillons each feature three axis: 1 flying in 40 seconds, one flying in three minutes, and one flying in eight minutes. The JCFM01 Caliber, with 572 parts, is also fitted with a repeater system that chimes the hours, 10-minute segments and minutes via two hammers.
According to Arabo, the watch and movement were more than two years in the making and took more than 3,300 hours and a team of 30 experts to bring the piece to fruition. The case is engine-shaped (in an inverted triangular form) and inspired by a Morgan car that Jacob recently purchased.
“From a brand like ours [people] want different. It is all about unique pieces; stand out pieces. This is what we deliver,” says Arabo.
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