In 2019, Bugatti Automobiles and Jacob & Co. entered into a partnership agreement, based on a shared focus on extreme luxury, mechanical performance and craft. Both brands have been working together to create unrivaled hypercar-inspired timepieces.
“Working closely with Bugatti is an exciting experience,” says Jacob Arabo, Jacob & Co. Founder and Chairman. “I live to push watchmaking to new levels, coming up with designs and complications that no one had even dreamed about. Bugatti is the same. They push everything beyond what everyone thinks is the limit. The Bugatti Tourbillon is our most advanced timepiece, the great achievement of a great partnership.”
The Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon is the hypertwin to Bugatti's new hyper sports car, which is also named Tourbillon. The Bugatti Tourbillon features new inventions, new complications in a new architecture that takes after Bugatti's. These two extreme mechanisms are aesthetically, mechanically and functionally integrated. Never before has the likeness between a timepiece and an automobile been pushed that far and with such accuracy.
A total of ten defining design elements are directly drawn from the car’s. The Bugatti Tourbillon case shape is the same as Bugatti's car, with the front grille flanked by two side radiator inlets. The case sides show two large sapphire openings, shaped and tinted like the car's side windows. The sub-dials are designed like the car's dashboard and rpm counter. Its automaton emulates the car's new V16 engine block, down to its exhaust manifolds. Even the winding crown mimics the finishings on the control knobs.
In September 2022, Bugatti privately announced to Jacob & Co., the development of a new hyper sports car to succeed Chiron, featuring a new engine, design and unprecedented levels of engineering and luxury. By January 2023, Jacob & Co. visited Bugatti’s design studio where founder Jacob Arabo, CEO Benjamin Arabov and their team collaborated with Bugatti’s design team, led by Achim Anscheidt and Jan Schmid.
Together, the meeting resulted in a seamless integration of car and watch design, culminating in the Bugatti Tourbillon, an extraordinary timepiece created and developed over 18 months, showcasing the innovative synergy between two of the world’s most luxurious brands.
Caliber JCAM55 is a movement like no other. Its complications are designed to look and operate like the V16 engine of Bugatti's Tourbillon. Each in itself, and all of them combined, are unique in their creative intensity and mechanical ingenuity.
This one-of-a-kind automaton is made of a single, very large block of transparent sapphire, in which 16 cylinders are drilled. They house 16 titanium pistons. They're driven by an achievement of watch manufacturing : a single-axis crankshaft. It is one of the longest, most elaborate and most delicate watch parts ever crafted. When the automaton is activated, the crankshaft spins and all 16 cylinders move up and down. The engine block is connected to a set of 16 exhaust manifolds. After the pusher within the crown is activated, the automaton sequence lasts 20 seconds.
Gravity has a naturally negative impact on a movement's accuracy. By putting its escapement into a constant spin, the tourbillon counteracts this natural defect. The faster the rotation, the better the accuracy. In Caliber JCAM55, this rotation takes 30 seconds, twice as fast as the ubiquitous one-minute period. The tourbillon carriage being held only by its base, with no upper bridge, makes it a flying tourbillon.
Both the hour hand and the minute hand are retrograde. After they complete a 270-degree arc, when they finish their own cycle, they jump back to zero and start anew. What's more, the hour hand is jumping. Every 60 minutes, the blue hand jumps to the next hour and stays there until the next one is up.
A unique feature in contemporary watchmaking, the Bugatti Tourbillon displays the power reserve of its automaton. The engine block automaton can execute an incredible 20 consecutive animation sequences on a single, full wind. The remaining autonomy is indicated by the smaller hand in the Power Reserve counter. Caliber JCAM55's overall power reserve of 48 hours is indicated by the larger, red hand in the same subdial.
The Bugatti Tourbillon follows one of Jacob & Co.'s design principles, which is not to use side crowns. It has two. The winding crown, which doubles as the automaton start pusher, is located at the 12 o'clock side of the case. The time-setting crown is located on the case back, underneath the dials. It's fitted with a Jacob & Co. signature lift-out bow for optimal comfort.'
The Jacob & Co. Bugatti Tourbillon is designed to emulate and reinterpret Bugatti's extraordinary design and engineering achievements in watchmaking form. To celebrate the new engine architecture of the Bugatti Tourbillon hyper sports car, Jacob & Co. has crafted a new miniature engine block. The V16 engine block induces a new level of excitement and exhilaration for Jacob & Co.'s customers.
