Bugatti partners with Jacob & Co. for a series of new watch collections.
Hot on the heels (or is it wheels?) of Bugatti’s Geneva Motor Show presentation—where it revealed the most expensive new car of all time, the USD 19 M La Voiture Noire—the French hypercar brand unveiled two new additions to its lineup: Bugattis for the wrist.
Bugatti partnered with high-luxury watchmaking house Jacob & Co. to create timepieces that match the storied car marque’s most iconic creations. The partnership, which was revealed in Baselworld 2019, has already brought out its first two models: the limited-edition Twin Turbo Furious Bugatti and the Epic X Chrono Carbon Bugatti.
“For this project we found the right partner in Jacob & Co., because we are both absolutely dedicated to innovation with superb technology, absolute beauty, craftsmanship, and the highest quality of the materials,” explained Stephan Winkelmann, President of Bugatti, at the stand of Jacob & Co. at Baselworld.
The Epic is the more conservative of the two, if you can call it that. It leans toward the sporty side and displays the French flag colors on its dial, with the chronograph hand in red. The movement is skeletonized so you can see the work that went into it. This is a limited-edition model with only 110 pieces available, one for each year since the founding of Bugatti.
The Twin Turbo is the more complicated watch, with double triple-axis tourbillons, a column-wheel chronograph, and a decimal repeater that chimes out the time to the closest 10-minute mark. The turquoise around the dial is meant to pay homage to Bugatti’s 110th anniversary Chiron, while the power reserve indicator is marked as “fuel,” with the colors of the French flag on the gauge.
“When I look at a Bugatti Chiron, the perfectly refined engineering is so powerful that sometimes the car appears to be moving even when it is standing still,” said Jacob Arabo, founder of Jacob & Co., during Baselworld 2019. “That’s the same feeling I get when I wear our high complication timepieces: a rush, a sense of energy, movement and power that can barely be contained.”
Previously, Bugatti had a long-standing partnership with watchmaking house Parmigiani Fleurier, though they have since parted ways. This new era of Bugatti watches seems to be taking a markedly different direction from Parmigiani’s creations, and it should be exciting to see what else comes out of this partnership in the future.
