Hello and welcome on TheWATCHES.tv and today
we are going to talk about a really impressive timepiece, one of the most surprising I’ve
ever seen; exuberant, technical and fun at the same time! Personally I have always found automaton watches
really interesting and Jacob & Co is one of the rare brands to propose such timepieces,
but generally taking you a bit off guard with their creativity, think of the Astronomia
family and its many different models, the Opera Godfather watch, the Oil Pump seen last
year, well these are no ordinary automatons and what we are talking about today is no
exception and pushing again the limits quite far as we had the privilege of filming the
prototype version of the Bugatti Chiron by Jacob & Co, including some behind the scenes
of its assembly and manufacturing secrets, pretty cool no? So I don’t know if you guys remember but
last year we had talked about the brand’s new partnership with supercar maker Bugatti
announced at Baselworld and for the occasion they introduced a Bugatti version of the Twin
Turbo Furious limited to 39 pieces, a very impressive, and I promise this is an understatement,
twin triple-axis tourbillon minute repeater monopusher chronograph, yes just another little
simple watch, but this was more like a special version of a timepiece which had already been
presented in 2018, but now they are really introducing a totally new watch to honour
this partnership and when you consider the limited time it took them to develop this,
well this is already quite a performance by itself because we’re not talking adding
a little Bugatti logo on a dial, but putting an actual Bugatti Chiron on your wrist with
the full package, engine and all as simple as that! So when I first heard about this project,
I originally thought that the watch would be huge but actually it’s quite compact
if I can say so and wearable and I have small wrists. Ok, I understand that when I tell its vertical
size of 54mm, 44mm in width and 20mm in height this may seem massive, but strangely it doesn’t
give this impression because you just have so much happening in such a small volume,
but of course you have something quite special and unique on the wrist. So let’s now get more into details and before
talking mechanics let’s talk design and naturally the parallels with the actual Bugatti
Chiron are quite obvious, taking the flowing curves of the supercar on this titanium case
with its many sapphire openings letting you seriously admire quite a machine under the
hood, for instance with this horseshoe grill letting you see for the very first time on
a Jacob & Co watch this 30 degree inclined 1-minute tourbillon and something I like is
that normally the view of the tourbillon is generally reserved or let’s say privileged
for the actual wearer of the watch, but here it’s facing the person in front of you because
as the wearer, well you have something ever sweeter to look at with this amazing downsized
replica of the actual crazy W16 cylinder engine found in the Chiron. But quickly coming back on the movement, this
a totally new development, it’s manually hand-wound and I will get back on this feature
in a sec, totally worth it, hang in there, and this 578-component movement holds a strong
60 hours of power reserve and beats at 3 Hertz. So indeed a very nice movement in itself,
but of course the really super exciting part is this miniature engine and again no short-cut
taken, this is really a W16 cylinder exact replica of the original Chiron engine and
to let you fully enjoy it, well the cylinder part is made out of sapphire, but in the case
of the prototype we managed to film, this was still in plexiglass, so I can just imagine
how sparkly and even cooler it will be with this final sapphire version, but to be honest,
I am already quite impressed, because when you realize the size of the pistons and how
well they mimic the actual movements seen in the real engine thanks to this amazingly
small-sized crankshaft and when I say small-sized, well you have to realise the complexity of
this component, it’s immensely complex and so tiny at the same time, so to machine something
like this, well it requires some pretty heavy-duty super high-end CNC machine and it took the
team of Jacob & Co and its partners more than 3 days simply to adjust the machine to produce
this part essential for the engine’s smooth running and I’ve tested it many times and
it worked each time perfectly on demand, no gripping whatsoever, just smooth and mesmerizing
to look at. When I talked with the watchmaker responsible
for the project, he shared with me that even he didn’t know if it would actually work. He did all the computer projections and he
thought they made the right decision, but even he was holding his breath when they activated
the animation for the first time. And it works perfectly. So the watch holds two barrels, one for the
actual movement and you can see the power reserve indicator at 8 o’clock and a second
one for the animation. To wind both barrels, you turn this center
crown either clockwise for the movement or counterclockwise for the animation. The crown on the left lets you adjust the
time indication and the one on the right is actually a pusher that will activate the engine
animation which lasts approximately 20 seconds and with the barrel all fueled up, you can
activate it three times, energy being liberated from the barrel all the way to the animation
but properly regulated, meaning evenly, you don’t have the pistons revving at 5’000
RPMs and then slowly at 1’000 RMPs after 5 seconds, no it’s smooth and even and this
thanks to a mechanical regulator found on the side and to push a bit farther the parallels
with the real car, well here you will see two small turbochargers turning like crazy
when the animation is running. These don’t have mechanical purposes, but
they are just really super cool to look at, like I said, no short-cuts. Ok, but the show doesn’t stop there, as
you can see all the mechanical elements of this watch, the time-telling movement and
the animation movement are both found on some kind of special chassis, like the car’s
but here acting as some kind of baseplate and this entire structure is then held onto
the watch’s case with a suspension system and you can clearly see these 4 struts that
are not there for the decor, the movement is really suspended within the case, ok, that’s
already pretty nice, but this actually hides something totally awesome and I guess some
of you probably asked yourself: “well if this chassis can slightly move within the
case, how can the crown stems not break?”. Well this gets really super cool because they
developed these stems working with a cardan system and they will therefore adapt to these
changing heights because had they been rigid, well they could definitely break and/or jam
their function. Ok small detail, but I really like this. So this timepiece and listen to this, well
this timepiece is actually being officially launched here on TheWATCHES.tv, pretty cool
no and of course this will be limited, but the first good news, at least for me, is that
you don’t have to be a Bugatti owner to apply for one, it will probably help get you
on top of the list if you indeed have a Chiron in your garage, but this is a limited edition
piece designed for customization, so that buyers can get exactly the timepiece they
want – colors to match their Bugatti, gem set and more and we don’t yet know final
production volumes, but of course we are not talking huge volumes. Well anyhow I guess we’ll see some pretty
wild versions of what is already an amazing machine and the second good news is that it
will cost less than the Chiron! Well I hope you enjoyed this as much as we
did because once again I just love the fact of still being totally surprised with some
of these seemingly impossible and daring developments and, for instance, I never thought I would
see an operational crankshaft and pistons in a watch, so congrats for this world-first
and I’m pretty sure we will continue to see some other examples of creative watchmaking
in the future because it simply never stops and that’s really fantastic and inspiring
to witness people trying new things without any idea if it’s going to work or not, quite
bold, I like it. All the very best to you, really hope you
enjoyed this one, not an everyday sight for sure, see you real soon and Viva Exuberant
Watchmaking, I also like classical watchmaking and you that, but once in a while how cool
is to see something like this. See you
