Jacob & Co is a watchmaker that exists at the unapologetic edge of the industry. Unabashedly maximalist, larger-than-life and entirely unbothered about making timepieces that conform to prevailing sensibilities, this is watchmaking that is about making the biggest, blingiest and most audacious impression possible.

Jacob Arabo with Pharrell Williams, reflecting the brand’s early roots in hip-hop culture and celebrity clientele

Jacob Arabo founded the brand in New York in 1986 as a jewelry house, building a client base among hip-hop artists, athletes and entertainers at a time when that world had significant disposable income and no established luxury watch brand speaking directly to it. Watches came later, and when they did, they were immediately noticed: large, diamond-set, visually arresting. The brand has since invested seriously in in-house movement development, producing genuinely complex calibers — triple-axis tourbillons, astronomical complications, musical mechanisms — that have earned technical respect. The Astronomia, in particular, is a legitimate horological achievement.

Jacob & Co. The Godfather II

The Godfather II is the latest, and perhaps most personal, expression of the brand: a musical wristwatch that plays two Nino Rota compositions on demand, houses a flying tourbillon, fits into a rose gold case measuring 42mm by 44mm with Art Deco curves, and is limited to exactly 74 pieces — a reference to the film’s 1974 release.

The backstory is where the personal bit comes in: Jacob Arabo arrived in the United States from Uzbekistan in 1979, aged 14, speaking no English. Two years passed before he could afford a cinema ticket — The Godfather was the film he saw. That context turns the watch into a touching self-portrait in complication form: the immigrant’s journey to success, rendered in sapphire, rose gold and music box pins.

The Godfather II on the wrist, where cinematic storytelling meets high watchmaking in a refined Art Deco case

The technical achievement at the centre of the JCAM62 caliber is pretty cool. Musical watches are not new, but two-melody musical watches on a single barrel are. The mechanism works through a lateral shift of less than a millimeter in the cylinder position, controlled by a melody selector at 10 o’clock. That fractional movement determines which set of pins on the brass cylinder engages the 18-tooth steel comb, alternating between “The Godfather Love Theme” and “The Godfather’s Waltz”. Each melody plays for 15 to 20 seconds, and a fully wound music box delivers up to 10 activations before requiring rewinding — an improvement on the original Opera Godfather. Two separate power reserve indicators track the main movement’s 72-hour reserve and the music-box energy independently, because at this level of complication, conflating the two would be an engineering oversight the JCAM62 simply doesn’t make.

At its core, a finely engineered music box system uses a pin-studded cylinder and comb to play two iconic melodies

A detailed portrait of Don Corleone and signature film motifs bring the dial’s cinematic narrative to life

The case represents a significant aesthetic departure from the Opera Godfather’s 49mm round format. The new rectangular, curved profile with Art Deco proportions is both more wearable and more cinematically appropriate, courtesy of its 1930s styling. The caseback is a piano-shaped sapphire opening that reveals the music box comb beneath a plate engraved with the actual score of “The Godfather Love Theme”. The crown carries spiral grooves modeled on a gun barrel. Don Corleone’s rose motif runs along the case flank, and bullet holes are engraved on the caseback. The black lacquered dial carries a finely rendered portrait of Marlon Brando’s side profile alongside the iconic Godfather II logo, in three-dimensional appliqué.

The caseback reveals the music box mechanism through a piano-shaped sapphire window, engraved with the film’s score

At US$440,000 for each of the 74 pieces, The Godfather II positions itself at the intersection of haute horlogerie and haute theatricality, where the technical and the emotional are given equal weight. Three years of movement development for a mechanism that shifts less than a millimeter is pure dedication and an emotionally resonant interpretation.

Tech Specs: Jacob & Co. The Godfather II

Movement: Manual winding Caliber JCAM62; 72-hour power reserve

Functions: Hours, minutes, one-minute flying tourbillon, integrated music box with two melodies

Case: 42mm x 44mm x 17mm; 18K rose gold; water resistant to 30m

Dial: Black, lacquered, with Don Corleone print and The Godfather applique at 12 o’clock

Strap: Black alligator leather; 18K rose gold folding clasp

Availability: Limited edition of 74 pieces