Jacob & Co. revisits its roots with The World Is Yours collection, an homage to the watch that started it all.
The seeds of luxury watchmaker Jacob & Co. were first planted decades ago, when Jacob Arabov was just a boy. It started with a gift – a special double time zone watch given to 13-year-old Jacob by his father, Nison Arabov. This was no ordinary timepiece. For young Jacob, it represented the whole world laid out before him, waiting to be explored.
That gift lit a spark in Jacob, inspiring what would become a lifelong passion for watchmaking. Now, 45 years later, Jacob and his son Benjamin have brought that symbolic gift to life in a new collection called The World Is Yours. It’s a touching tribute to the watch that started it all – and the father who made it possible.
The World Is Yours Dual Time Zone is the first model in the new collection, a reimagination of that original double time zone watch. Its most striking feature is the intricate map dial, depicting the Earth as seen from space. A domed dial sits inside a 43mm rose gold case. It features continents rendered in a rose gold finish, stamped using a high-accuracy mould, along with three sub-dials carved into the dial plate. Oceans and seas are lacquered blue, set off by gold-stamped Roman and Arabic numerals and the minute tracks.
The bezel is thin and rounded to maximise the dial area. It also features a dramatically domed sapphire crystal, with a height difference of 3.7mm from its lowest to highest points, adding to the globe-like shape of the dial. Even the rose gold hands are curved to embrace the contours.
On the reverse side, the 18k rose gold caseback depicts engraved maps of the rest of the world, from Europe to Japan and all of Africa and Asia, completing the world map – hidden from view and only for the wearer to see. A watch is only as good as its engine. The World Is Yours Dual Time Zone is powered by a new exclusive Jacob & Co. calibre. It provides the full range of time zone functions – hour and minute hands for both home and away time zones, adjustable down to the minute. Jacob & Co. considers this feature rare yet essential, especially for countries with unusual UTC time offsets, allowing them to show both local and another time zone.
The watch’s small seconds hand, that sits in the centre, is a rose wind with four main arms, one of which is a red pointer, symbolising the compass that helps us navigate the world – a fitting homage to the moral compass provided by Nison Arabov.
For Jacob Arabov, there is a personal element to watchmaking, one that is deeply rooted in a story and passion. The World Is Yours collection expresses this perfectly. It transforms a decades-old family story into a modern masterpiece, uniting precision engineering with heritage.
Young Jacob saw his father’s gift as a sign – proof that the world was open to him, waiting to be conquered. It set him on the path that led to founding his luxury watch company. For Jacob and Benjamin Arabov, The World Is Yours collection pays respect to the man who set their true north.