Jacob & Co, the high-jewellery watchmaker to celebrities such as Beyonce, Jay Z, Pharell Williams, Cristiano Ronaldo and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather, has seen phenomenal growth in the last two years. Benjamin Arabov, CEO of the New York-based brand talks to Shilpa Dhamija in Geneva, about the complex and intense nature of the brand’s creations and introducing the very special $20 million ‘Billionaire watch’ with nearly 217 carats of yellow diamonds in it.
How long did it take for the one-of-a-kind Billionaire watch, covered in yellow diamonds to take shape? What was the most difficult aspect of creating this watch?
The Billionaire Timeless Treasure watch has 482 fancy yellow and fancy Intense yellow diamonds weighing 216.89 carats. It took us nearly three years to source 880 carats of rough yellow diamonds that have now become 216.89 carats after thousands of hours of cutting to the demanding Asscher cut.
Yellow diamonds are very difficult to find, and for every 10,000 white diamonds there is only one yellow. There were times when we went months without receiving any gemstones. Sometimes we got stones 1 or 2 or 3 at a time. It was a long and expensive process.
This watch also has 76 tsavorites totalling 3.59 carats.
Which setting techniques have you used in this watch? Where did you source the raw stones from?
We have used several types of setting techniques in this jewellery watch. We have used pronged technique to set the yellow diamonds on the case and bracelet, which means every piece of diamond is held by a piece of gold. Then on the inner ring of the watch dial, we have used tsavorites. On the inside of the dial, we have used an invisible setting because of lack of space. Our craftsmen who have so masterfully done this work are from Geneva. The stones for this watch were purchased mainly from Canada and Africa.
Is the Billionaire Watch a pre-order from a client?
No. It is not. But it is one of a kind.
Jacob & Co recently announced its phenomenal growth with revenues jumping by +132% from 2020 to 2022. What has catalysed this growth and what are your future plans?
I joined the family business about two years ago. One of my main goals was to relieve a lot of projects or responsibilities from Jacob Arabov, my father and founder of the brand, so that he can do what he is best at doing, which is designing. Since then, we have been able to expand territorially into different countries.
Last year we opened in 10 different locations. This year, too, we are targeting 10 more locations. We have also expanded our digital advertising base to showcase the beautiful products that we have.
Right now, which are the most important emerging markets for Jacob & Co.?
India is an important and emerging market for us. We started our relationship with Ethos for our watches last year. In other parts of the world, we opened mono brand stores, shop-in-shops in Singapore, London (in two locations), and Tokyo. We are present through 94 points of sales in 34 countries worldwide, including the flagship store in New York.
We launched in Singapore in November 2022, and we are excited to see its growth. In Singapore we have partnered with ‘Sincere’ retailer and the market has been very strong for us. The Middle East is another important region for us. We are opening our own boutique in Saudi Arabia in April.
What about China?
In China we had a small presence over the last few years but now we are re-strategising how we can tackle the China market. We are opening a boutique in Hong Kong at the Peninsula Hotel in June 2023.
Saudi Arabia seems like a key market for the kind of products that Jacob & Co. makes. What are the reasons for your company to open a store so late in the brand’s journey?
In Saudi Arabia it is only now that we have found the right partner for us. We already have clients from Saudi Arabia who travel around the world and buy from our other boutiques. But where we see large growth in a specific region, is when we decide to launch a boutique.
India is a strong jewellery market. Will you ever sell jewellery in India?
We are investing in rebuilding our jewellery strategy and our collections. That focus will start in 2024. So, we are not launching any jewellery in India anytime soon.
Let us talk about the special bejewelled or ‘iced’ caviar watch which Cristiano Ronaldo was seen wearing when he joined his new Saudi Arabia club. Where did you source the tsavorites from? What kind of jewellery watches does Ronaldo like to wear?
Since we don’t buy directly from the mines, we don’t know the origin of the mines. We buy a lot of gemstones from Israel and Geneva. We also have some stones coming from India and other parts of the world.
Ronaldo prefers more iced watches. There is usually a back-and-forth creative process between him and Jacob for his collection. He enjoys that process and adding his inputs into the designs.
Why are hip-hop artists and celebrities attracted to iced (carpet coverage) watches and jewellery so much?
For them it is a sign of success. In their early days, a lot of young rappers would run to buy jewellery even with their first money that they would make even before they were successful. Sometimes Jacob would lend them jewellery. For them, who come from absolutely nothing and then see success, a big diamond chain would indicate that the man has got a hit song.
Lastly, what is it like to continue building a brand that your family started from scratch, only one generation ago?
Something that I appreciate about my job is that every day is different. Every day brings a new problem. For me at this point, running my own business for 7 years and then working in the family business, when a problem comes up, you don’t see that oh another problem but think about the solution. It could be an HR problem, like not finding the right people or people not performing their duties. Also, with the kind of products that we develop, we go into areas that are unknown and there is always the stress of not knowing what the final result will be.