Enigmatic, Fantastic : The Mystery

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Enigmatic, Fantastic : The Mystery - Jacob & Co.
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Unrecognized, unreal and dizzying, The Mystery is one of many superlative timepieces created by Jacob & Co. Take a tour of this beast of high jewelry and high watchmaking

Unrecognized, unreal and dizzying, The Mystery is one of many superlative timepieces created by Jacob & Co. Take a tour of this beast of high jewelry and high watchmaking.

When Jacob & Co. puts its mind to it, I mean really go for it, the result is beyond imagining. Here's a timepiece that precisely cranks everything up to eleven. Complication, gem-setting, dimensions, ambition, everything about The Mystery is out of this world.

L’énigmatique et fantastique The Mystery

This timepiece is some sort of UFO born of high horology and high jewelry. Its price, as you must have guessed, is a hefty seven figures. The thing is, it looks so incredible it blinds the mind to everything it's made of and represents. In an industry where the slightest accomplishment is heavily publicized, all of The Mystery's are surprisingly uncelebrated.

And those accomplishments are many on the movement alone. The brand calls calibre JCAM42 a « double triple axis tourbillon »...which can mean many things. In actuality, it's built around two central tourbillons, jointed back to back, like Siamese twins. As a result, they have the shape of a sphere. Between them lies a differential that evens out their instantaneous rate, which is the whole idea behind multiple regulating organs. They spin along three axes, each with its own speed. The one closest to the balance wheels makes one turn per minute. The one in the middle requires two, as does the outermost axis, the one that creates the most obvious rotation. And then you realize this infinitely complex creature doesn't have an upper bridge. It's a flying, central, double, spherical, triple-axis tourbillon. Stratospheric.

L’énigmatique et fantastique The Mystery

What's more, The Mystery has unique breadth. Diameter is 50 mm and thickness under the crystal reaches 22.75 mm. But any quick glance on the caseback will show that this volume is required by the movement's dimensions. The orb of the tourbillons itself is crazy high. And the barrels are substantial, as they offer this machine a running time of 60 hours. To mitigate the overall heft, the wide sapphire crystal has a double curvature. It starts steep, then the slope becomes more gentle as it nears the top.

What instantly strikes is of course the abundance of gemstones. In this version, they're all diamonds. But Jacob & Co. knows to craft The Mystery with all rubies, all blue sapphires, multicolored sapphires, and go figure exactly what bespoke and very confidential versions they've edited. The brand specializes in invisible setting, where stones are so closely adjacent the metal disappears, and in the baguette cut. These two features are exclusive enough, especially since Jacob & Co. practices them at an extreme level of quality and frequency. But what we have here is even a couple of steps above.

L’énigmatique et fantastique The Mystery

The gems are not cut in rectangles, like baguettes. The ones on the caseband and lugs have perfect hexagonal shape. The ones on the dial are cut with 6 sides shaped like an asymmetrical arrowhead. They're not set flat, but cocked like blocks of ice lifted by an underlying force.

They cover an immense surface under the domed crystal, all three rows of them. The outermost one  can barely be called a minute track although it's its designated function. The next two rows of diamonds spin as they're set onto a ring meant to show the minute, whose pointer is a ruby. And the last two rows of diamonds, the ones nearest the central tourbillons, will give you the hour.

So if your head isn't spinning already, here's a bunch of figures to help melt your brain. On the case, 312 diamonds with a total weight of 18 ct. On the dial, 262 diamonds for a total of 14.73 ct. The ruby hands add 0.46 ct. So in total, and including the last 18 baguettes on the clasp, The Mystery incorporates over 35 carats of diamonds of exceptional cut. So, are you dizzy yet ?

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