Description
Jacob & Co. has brought back the watch that gave the brand its voice. The Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater, first shown in 2014, returns in 2026 as reference PT500.40.NS.AC.ABALA: a 43 mm 18k rose gold case, a one-minute flying tourbillon at six o'clock, and a minute repeater striking on cathedral gongs. Twelve pieces, USD 390,000 before taxes.
The number is deliberate. The original was a run of twelve, and this return matches it, arriving in the brand's fortieth year. Where most Jacob & Co. complications shout — Astronomia, Twin Turbo, Opera — the Palatial is the quiet one, and it is still the most classically built watch the house makes.
Design
The 43 mm polished rose gold case is 12.3 mm thick, with sapphire crystals front and back and a signature Jacob & Co. crown. The dial is the piece's defining gesture: a transparent red mineral plate, through which the movement's striking racks and the tourbillon's bridgework are visible, overlaid with faceted 18k rose gold applied hour markers (one carrying the brand logo), a brushed rose gold G clef and skeletonised metronome hands. The two musical references are not decoration for its own sake — they label the watch's function.
The flying tourbillon sits raised above the dial plane at six o'clock, so it reads as an object on the dial rather than a window into one. Bridges carry côtes de Genève, hand-polished angles and drawn edges. The watch is fitted to a red alligator strap with a matching gold pin buckle, and is water resistant to 30 m.
Specifications
- Reference: PT500.40.NS.AC.ABALA
- Case material: 18k rose gold, polished
- Case diameter: 43 mm
- Case thickness: 12.3 mm
- Crystal and caseback: sapphire
- Water resistance: 30 m
- Dial: transparent red mineral plate with faceted 18k rose gold applied markers, brushed rose gold G clef, skeletonised metronome hands
- Movement: calibre JCCM04, hand-wound, 30 x 6.10 mm, 308 components, 29 jewels
- Complications: one-minute flying tourbillon; minute repeater with cathedral gongs
- Frequency: 21,600 vph (3 Hz)
- Power reserve: 90 hours
- Finishing: côtes de Genève bridges, hand-polished angles, drawn edges
- Strap: red alligator with 18k rose gold pin buckle
- Limited edition: 12 pieces, all without gem-setting
- Price: USD 390,000 before taxes
- Availability: Jacob & Co. boutiques and retailers
- Announced: 7 October 2026
What's Exciting
The technical news is in the acoustics, not the architecture. The JCCM04 keeps the cathedral gongs of the 2014 original — gongs that wrap nearly twice around the movement for a longer, deeper note — but the hammers and gongs have been reworked and a silent centrifugal governor added. That governor is the detail worth caring about: the regulator that controls the striking speed is the loudest mechanical parasite in any repeater, and the hum of a toothed or anchor governor competes directly with the chime you paid for. Replacing it with a centrifugal flywheel running in air is the difference between hearing a melody and hearing a melody over a motor.
The calibre's provenance is the other story, and it is a good one. JCCM04 was born at BNB Concept, the Geneva complication house that collapsed in 2010 after supplying half the industry's tourbillons; it was taken up by Pierre Favre's Manufacture Hautes Complications, which later joined Timeless within the Régence Group. That a movement from the wreckage of BNB is still being built and improved sixteen years later says something about how much good engineering that firm left behind. At 12.3 mm for a repeater and a flying tourbillon, it is also genuinely well proportioned — which, for Jacob & Co., is the surprise.
History
Jacob Arabo founded Jacob & Co. in New York in 1986 as a jeweller, and the watch division took its reputation first from the Five Time Zone and then from a run of complications — Astronomia, Twin Turbo Furious, Opera Godfather — that pushed mechanical spectacle further than almost anyone. The 2026 return lands in the brand's fortieth year.
The Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater of 2014 was the piece that introduced sound to the catalogue, and it did so in the most conventional dress the brand has ever worn: round case, gold, a chime and a tourbillon, nothing orbiting. Every chiming Jacob & Co. since — the Twin Turbo Furious with its décimal repeater, the Astronomia Maestro Minute Repeater, the Opera Godfather with its music-box barrel — descends from the decision taken with this watch. Twelve pieces then, twelve pieces now.
