Story | Connie Li Photography | Jacob & Co
During a 3 ½-year global treasure hunt, Jacob & Co. has almost dried up the market for exceptionally large and high-quality yellow diamonds to complete Billionaire Timeless Treasure–the first-ever coloured Billionaire in the company’s history and at a cost of US$20 million, it is one of the most expensive timepieces ever crafted.
Jacob & Co. put together a staff of 10 to search, sort and cut the gems whilst fifteen more artisans crafted the yellow gold lattice structure, setting and encasing the tourbillon movement. A total of 880 carats of the rarest and most opulent rough yellow diamonds–some of them reaching 2.5 carats–contributed to this masterpiece. Yellow diamonds are significantly different to white diamonds in that they’re infinitely rarer, (by a 10,000-to-1 ratio), and are therefore infinitely more expensive.
Those 880 carats become 216.89 carats after thousands of hours of cutting to the demanding Asscher cut. These 425 gems are laid out individually as a mosaic of small dimensions. Their Fancy Yellow and Fancy Intense Yellow colour is enhanced by the unique green glow of tsavorites, one of Jacob & Co.’s favourite gems. Since it was impossible to maintain colour intensity with yellow diamonds of these dimensions,. Seventy-six of them were selected–emerald cut and kite cut–to surround the JCAM39 calibre.
In this new type of Billionaire, each gem has a designated place. Fortysix of them, totally 55.15 carats, are meant for the case. The first row of the 159-carat bracelet also demand hefty gems, with their individual size diminishing in perfectly regular increments as they near the clasp.
The gems surrounding the movement on the flange are longer and thinner so as to fit into the inner ring that connects case and the Billionaire skeleton tourbillon movement, which is further adorned with another 57 yellow baguette-cut diamonds.
The yellow gold structure offers support to the watch’s gems. This highly complex lattice is crafted to measure – link by link, prong by prong–and fine-tuned for each of the gems it’s destined to receive.
Launched in 2015, Billionaire was an unheard of timepiece at the time. Finding, sorting, cutting and prepping its 239 emerald-cut diamonds was an enterprise of incredible proportions. As of February 2023, a total of 21 Billionaire timepieces had been crafted and all of them sold directly to their owners, or to the most high-end watch retailers on the planet.
