AN ODYSSEY OF SOUND: JACOB & CO. UNVEILS THE PALATIAL FLYING TOURBILLON MINUTE REPEATER

AN ODYSSEY OF SOUND: JACOB & CO. BRINGS BACK ITS FIRST MINUTE REPEATER

New York / Geneva – October 6, 2026 – In 2014, sound entered Jacob & Co's watchmaking through a single complication: the minute repeater. The Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater opened an odyssey of sound that has since run through chiming watches, music boxes and, eventually, both at once. Twelve years later, that odyssey returns to its first note. As Jacob & Co celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2026, the Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater returns in a new edition, now powered by the new Caliber JCCM04, featuring a redesigned tourbillon cage and a silent centrifugal governor. Presented in 18K rose gold with a red mineral crystal dial, the new Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater is limited to 12 pieces, one for each year since the original model was introduced. Retail price: USD 390,000.

TWELVE YEARS OF SOUND

First introduced in 2014, the Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater paired one of watchmaking's oldest and most demanding complications with a flying tourbillon, presented within an elegant, round case. Until then, Jacob & Co's watches had made watches to be seen. This was the first made to be heard, and it went on to sell out completely. From there, Jacob & Co's work with sound followed two paths: chiming watches, like the minute repeater, which strike the time on demand with hammers on tuned gongs; and musical watches, which play a melody as a pinned cylinder plucks the tuned teeth of a comb, using the same principle as a music box. At Baselworld 2018, the Maison presented two new minute repeaters. The Twin Turbo Furious paired its twin triple-axis tourbillons with a decimal minute repeater, striking hours, ten-minute intervals and minutes. The Astronomia Maestro introduced a carillon minute repeater, with three gongs and three hammers in place of the conventional two. Its musical watches had begun a year earlier: at Baselworld 2017, the Maison introduced the Opera, the first luxury timepiece to combine a triple-axis tourbillon movement with a two-comb, two-cylinder Swiss music box. In 2019, the Opera Godfather followed, its mechanical music box playing "The Godfather Love Theme" from Francis Ford Coppola's film. In 2020, the Opera Godfather Minute Repeater brought both forms of sound together, combining a minute repeater, a triple-axis tourbillon, and a music box in a single watch. And in 2026, The Godfather II took the musical timepiece further, engineering two melodies onto a single music-box cylinder to create the world's only dual-melody musical timepiece.

TWO COMPLICATIONS, ONE MOVEMENT

The Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater brings together two of watchmaking's most demanding complications in a single hand-wound caliber: a minute repeater and a 60-second flying tourbillon. For this new edition, Jacob & Co. has revisited the original movement. Caliber JCCM04 succeeds the original Caliber JCBM03, with refinements to its manufacturing and assembly. The minute repeater is activated through a slide integrated into the caseband. Pressing the slide arms the mechanism and supplies the energy required for the striking sequence. Once released, the watch chimes the time: a low tune for each hour, alternating high and low tunes for the quarter hours, and a high tune for each remaining minute. Stepped cams, known as snails, encode the hours, quarters and minutes, while racks read their positions and determine the number of strikes. The notes are produced by two hammers striking two cathedral gongs. Longer than conventional gongs, they extend around the movement to increase resonance and produce a longer, richer sound. The gongs are formed, hardened, tuned and fitted by hand, with the final adjustment made by ear. A centrifugal governor controls the cadence of the striking sequence. For this new edition, it has been engineered to operate silently, eliminating mechanical noise that could interfere with the sound of the gongs. A flying tourbillon cage is positioned at 6 o'clock, completing one revolution every 60 seconds. The cage has been redesigned, alongside refinements made to its manufacturing and assembly. Both complications are integrated into the manually wound Jacob & Co. Caliber JCCM04, composed of 308 components and 29 jewels, operating at 3 Hz (21,600 vph) and providing 90 hours of power reserve. Through the sapphire crystal caseback, the cathedral gongs, hammers, and architecture of the striking mechanism remain visible, allowing the minute repeater to be both heard and seen in operation. The movement is finished with Côtes de Genève, hand-polished angles and finely drawn edges.

DETAILS INSPIRED BY SOUND

The mechanical complexity of the Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater is matched by a design that carries its connection to sound across the dial. The red mineral dial sets the visual identity of the timepiece, complemented by applied 18K rose gold hour markers. The watch's connection to sound extends into its smallest details: a brushed 18K rose gold G clef appliqué is positioned at 9 o'clock, a symbol that opens a musical score. The skeletonized hands take their shape from a metronome, the instrument used to keep tempo — a fitting reference for a watch whose governor keeps the tempo of its own chime.

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