Jacob & Co. is the New York-based high-jewellery and watchmaking house founded by Jacob Arabo in 1986. The brand is unusual in the contemporary luxury landscape for having executed two distinct strategic phases — a hip-hop-era retail jewellery business through the 1990s and 2000s, followed by a deliberate move into independent haute horlogerie from the mid-2010s — and for having become globally recognisable in popular culture in the process.

Founding and early years

Arabo, born in Tashkent in 1965 to a Bukharian Jewish family with a multi-generational jewellery tradition, emigrated to the United States in 1979 and apprenticed in the New York Diamond District through the early 1980s. He opened the first Jacob & Co. atelier in 1986 at 580 Fifth Avenue, the diamond exchange building. The first decade was a small custom-jewellery business serving the Diamond District trade and a growing private clientele.

The hip-hop era

From the mid-1990s the brand became identified with the rising hip-hop scene. Public references in lyrics by The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Sean Combs, 50 Cent, Cam'ron, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Drake and many others established "Jacob the Jeweler" as a fixture of the genre. The signature output of this period was the Five Time Zone wristwatch (see separate entry), heavily diamond-set Cuban-link chains in extreme density, full-pavé pendants in scale and density not generally seen at retail, and bespoke coloured-stone and coloured-diamond commissions for individual artists.

The 2006-2008 interruption

The brand suffered a serious interruption when Arabo was indicted in 2006 in the Black Mafia Family federal money-laundering investigation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to falsifying records and making false statements to federal agents, served 30 months in federal prison and paid a $2 million fine. The brand continued trading during his incarceration and Arabo resumed active management on release.

The watchmaking pivot

From 2010 onwards the brand has executed a deliberate move toward independent haute horlogerie. The Astronomia series, introduced in 2014 and developed in partnership with movement specialist Studio 7h38 in Geneva, is the central exhibit of the new direction. The Astronomia carries a three-axis tourbillon and a multi-axis orbiting time, moon-phase and globe display in a transparent sapphire-crystal case, and the platform has been refined through Astronomia Sky, Astronomia Solar, Astronomia Casino and Astronomia Tourbillon Baguette editions. The Twin Turbo Furious double-tourbillon decimal-minute repeater chronograph (2017) and the Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon (a partnership with Bugatti Automobiles, 2020 onwards) have extended the brand's reach into the upper tier of the independent watchmaking market.

Distribution and structure

The brand operates a network of standalone boutiques in New York, Paris, Geneva, Dubai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Macau, Kuwait City and Riyadh, alongside authorised dealer placements in select multi-brand watch retailers. Manufacturing is split between the New York jewellery atelier, which handles the high-jewellery and bespoke coloured-stone work, and the Geneva watchmaking workshop. The brand is privately held by the Arabo family.

Position in the field

Jacob & Co. occupies an unusual position. From the watchmaking side it is one of a small group of independent houses (alongside MB&F, Greubel Forsey, Urwerk, Richard Mille and a few others) producing high-complication watches outside the established Swiss group structure. From the jewellery side it remains identified with a specific cultural moment in popular music in a way that no other house of comparable scale is. The combination is distinctive in the contemporary luxury landscape and has produced both the brand's rapid growth and its periodic critical and reputational controversies.