American pop culture would currently be unthinkable without Jacob & Co. From hip-hop to mainstream, and from sports-caster to movie diva, anyone who's anyone is wearing a watch by "Jacob the Jeweler" these days.

This type of attention positively smacks of the short-lived and cheap. And even though Jacob's masterfully designed, overly large timepieces kicked off a trend all their ownЧeven calling to life a great deal of "icy" copycats, certainly the purest form of flatteryЧthey are anything but cheap and trendy.

Jacob Arabo grew up in Russia, where his passion for creating jewelry developed during his formative years. After immigrating to the United States as a teenager, Arabo enrolled in a jewelry design course with the intent of developing his natural talents. Showing exceptional aptitude, he was urged to begin his career in earnest and thus immediately began designing for a number of jewelry labels and private clients. In 1986, a short five years after that, Arabo opened his current company, Diamond Quasar, and from then on designed exclusively for his own label, Jacob & Co.

The year 2006 marked Jacob's full frontal attack on the established watch industry. Creating a number of wild tourbillons and jeweled and non-jeweled five-time-zone automatics and manually wound models in 2005, practically heralding what was to come, Jacob took the entire industry by storm at Baselworld 2006. The question, "Have you seen what Jacob is showing?" was one heard throughout the entire showЧand one that was justifiably asked. Jacob & Co.'s innovative introduction, the Quenttin, incorporated so many firsts in such a newfangled look that the observer needed to rub his or her eyes before going for a second glance. Gone is any trace of diamond, Jacob's shining hallmark, replaced by a mechanical monster resembling something more along the lines of a small adding machine. This machine, actually not so small at 56 x 47 x 21 mm, "only" shows the hours and minutes on the main digital disk displays, and the power reserve display at far left, which could conceivably also be used as the date, since it comprises a full 31 days! Unheard of in a wristwatch until now, this tremendous autonomy is achieved by sevenЧcount 'em, you can see 'em Чspring barrels above the time display. Almost as an afterthought, upon turning over the $360,000 case available in white gold, rose gold, or magnesium (perhaps the preferred metal here due to its lightness), one spies the manually wound movement that incorporates a brand-new Swiss pallet escapement in a tourbil-lon case, suspended without a roller bearing and thus vertical. The 40-jewel movement can be wound only by key, either using one's hand (quite an undertaking for a 31 -day movement) or by using a winder especially developed for Jacob by Orbita that comes with the gargantuan timepiece.

Arabo's signature timepiece, aptly dubbed the 5 Time Zone Watch, was inspired both by his jewelry creations and the jet-set lifestyle of so many of the celebrity clients that he has managed to amass. Its colorful dial is separated into four fields, each representing the glamour-puss time zones L.A., New York, Paris, and Tokyo. The main sweep hands are used for the wearer's local time. Jacob & Co. has extended this theme almost as far as it can go, and offers a veritable myriad of dial colors and materials (bling!) in precious metal cases. Although celebrities prefer to wear the in-your-face, 47 mm version, which is certainly visible at any distance and detectable by any TV camera, 40 mm versions also exist in all variations.