Jacob & Co.’s New Bugatti Tourbillon Has a V-16 Engine
Together with the launch of the Italian manufacturer’s new tourbillon supercar comes an avant-garde watch.
French for whirlwind, tourbillon is a fitting name for the ingenious spinning balance spring found in many high-end watches, and now, tourbillon is the name of the most powerful Bugatti supercar yet. Today, Jacob & Co. announced a watch to go with the car.
We covered the car last week, saying it has a naturally aspirated V-16 engine that pumps out 1,800 horsepower. We also noted the car’s dashboard, which incorporates more than 600 components (many of which are made of titanium), a skeletonized “dial” configuration, and sapphire glass covering it all. You might think we’re describing a watch, but applying horological art to the dashboard of a luxury car is rare in modern times (Heuer and Jaeger-LeCoultre typically made mechanical dashboard instruments in the early and mid-20th century). Last year, for example, both Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin created dashboard instruments for Rolls-Royce, but generally speaking, this is a rare art. fake watches for sale
On the other hand, car watches often feel a bit “cheesy.” Dials become speedometers, hood badges are blatantly printed on the case, strap, and dial, or iconic car colors are lazily woven into the watch design. Even more difficult is to recreate every aspect of the actual car’s mechanics, which Jacob & Co. has already accomplished in the watch it created for Bugatti’s Chiron in 2020. What makes this Bugatti Tourbillon collaboration so special is the car’s clock dashboard, as well as the incredible mechanics inside the watch that recreates the V16 engine. This is no longer a one-way car imitation; it’s a two-way conversation between the brands from the bottom up.
The 52 x 44mm watch features a case that mimics the grille, cooling inlets, and other shapes on the car’s exterior. The dashboard is also meticulously mimicked and includes a 30-second flying tourbillon. But it’s inside the movement that this fake men watch transcends the usual play of car collaborations. Here we find the V16 engine block. This is an operational mechanical automaton, a “complication” for which Jacob & Co. is famous, alongside brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaquet Droz and now Chanel. The engine block is cut from a single block of sapphire. The retrograde hour and minute indicators mimic a tachymeter and speedometer.