After having conquered the world of bespoke jewelry, the Jacob & Co. brand is seeking success in the realm of haute horlogerie. When you purchase a Jacob & Co. timepiece, you are buying a piece of a one-of-a-kind tale. Jacob Arabo’s story is one of unparalleled talent, the realization of the American dream and the continual pursuit of the loftiest successes.
While playing the story mode of the 2004 video game Def Jam: Fight For NY, I remember “meeting” a certain non-playable character named Jacob the Jeweler. The in-game cash that I, the protagonist, earned could be used to purchase lavish jewelry from Jacob, who would greet me whenever I entered his sparkling boutique: “My friend, how are you today?”
This video game character was a tribute to a prominent member of New York’s A-lister circles. I gradually realized that Jacob the Jeweler of the Def Jam video game series was the same Jacob whom I had seen in photographs with genre-defining musicians like the Notorious B.I.G. and Pharrell Williams.
A trusted merchant and friend of hip-hop’s glitterati, Jacob is an adept jeweler whom rappers entrusted to create bespoke jewelry for them, of inimitable quality at that. Case in point: Jacob Arabo even pioneered his own signature cut, the “Jacob Cut,” which involves shaping a diamond into a sphere with 288 facets and is a unique technique showcased in the Astronomia range of timepieces that we will soon discuss.
How beloved is the jewelry king of New York? He’s been given a shout-out in at least 70 mainstream rap songs, from Kanye West’s “Touch the Sky” to Jay-Z’s “Girl’s Best Friend.”
Born Yakov Arabov, he grew up in USSR-controlled Tashkent, Uzbekistan until age 14 when his family migrated to the United States of America in search of a better life. Russian Jews, the Arabovs settled in Forest Hills, Queens. Jacob would learn how to repair his sisters’ jewelry and eventually drop out of public school at age 16 to attend a jeweler’s trade school in Brooklyn, where he won school awards for his dazzling creations.
Soon after, at age 17, he set up a wholesale jewelry factory that made jewelry for department stores. He would switch to selling ready-made and custom jewelry to the rich and famous, which was where he garnered international fame. His
