Introducing the Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon Sapphire Crystal
There are watches that lean into automotive inspiration, and then there’s the Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon Sapphire Crystal, which is the closest you can get to having a car on the your wrist. It practically is a hypercar in horological form. This latest iteration takes the already outrageous Bugatti Tourbillon concept and turns it up a notch. The result is something that sits between watch, car, and mechanical sculpture. Moving away from the precious metals we are used to seeing on Jacob & Co. ‘s watches, we get something very different indeed: Sapphire. Let’s see how this has changed the watch!
The Basics
Case: 55 x 44 mm, 15 mm thick, Solid Sapphire Crystal with 18K Gold Details.
Crystal: Sapphire.
Movement: Hand-wound, Jacob & Co. caliber JCAM55, 557 components, 30-second tourbillon, 80-hour power reserve.
Water Resistance: 30 Meters.
Strap Options: Interchangeable rubber strap (color matched) with rose gold and titanium deployment clasp.
Price: $1,200,000.
Availability: Two unique pieces (green and blue).
The Juice
The big news here is obvious: the full sapphire case. But that doesn’t really capture the scale of the undertaking. To start with, the Bugatti watch doesn’t have a traditionally shaped case, so this task is a whole lot harder to start off with. Secondly, this isn’t a sapphire bezel or a few transparent bridges: it’s the entire external structure that has been carved and machined for hundreds of hours. The payoff is absolute clarity. You don’t just glimpse the movement; you experience it from every angle. It is like looking at something in a museum’s display case.
The museum analogy holds perfectly here, seeing that the movement inside is an absolute stunner. The JCAM55 is already one of Jacob & Co.’s most theatrical calibers, but in this format, it feels even more impressive. The V16 engine block automaton sits front and center, and through the sapphire, you can watch all 16 pistons cycle in sequence when activated.
If all of that wasn’t quite enough to wow you, Jacob & Co. have added a very tasteful and on-brand 30-second tourbillon. Absurdly fast by traditional standards, it actually makes total sense here given the speed you might expect in a Bugatti. The devil really is in the details. Positioned on the left-hand side, it is balanced out by the right-hand side power reserve indicator, which cleverly tracks both the movement and the automaton in the same display. The cohesion in this watch is really something of note.
Jacob & Co. don’t do thing by halves, the hypercar theme is intrisinc to this design and no element has been left unturned. The central display is where things get properly unconventional. The retrograde hours and minutes, laid out like a hypercar dashboard, jump and snap back with precision.
Of course, it’s not without its trade-offs. The size is enormous, and at 55 mm across, this is not pretending to be wearable in any conventional sense. But that’s almost beside the point. This is a watch designed to be experienced, not discreetly worn under a cuff.
Final Thoughts
The Bugatti Tourbillon Sapphire Crystal is one of those watches that exists at the far edge of what the industry can do. This is a totally ridiculous concept when you think about what it is on paper: a tribute to Bugatti, an automaton, sapphire, the list goes on. But in person, it all falls into place and makes perfect sense. Having seen the previous iterations of this model, it really feels like this is the final summit. The museum display-like case makes complete sense for such a technical piece- who wouldn’t want to be able to see every angle of this watch whilst wearing it. For something that might seem like it’s trying too hard, I can guarantee you that its not: this is the closest we can possibly get to hypercars in horology and it definitely deserves the attention.
Find out more about this watch here.
