By Dhananjay Pathak
Swiss brand Jacob and Co. has a prominent presence in the field of high end watchmaking and is known for putting together spellbinding watches with astronomical complications. Though I haven’t had the opportunity to interact with a Jacob and Co. grand complication timepiece, pictures alone leave me gaze in amazement at these works of art. When the brand participated in 2015’s Only Watch auction they offered the Epic SF24, Jacob and Co.’s unique take on a GMT, which we covered here for our readers. For this year’s Only Watch auction, the brand is keeping things relatively simple by offering the Epic X Chrono, a column wheel based chronograph, in a unique combination of black and yellow, the official color way for the 2017 Only Watch auction.
The dial on the Epic X Chrono has a “Bi-Compax” style layout and this I feel is a good decision by the brand as it keeps the dial uncluttered and aids legibility as compared to a tri register layout. Yes, looks are subjective and both the layouts are different even from a functionality standpoint, but coming to think of it how many of us out there practically use every function on a chronograph, not many I think. Nevertheless, moving ahead with the dial, the two chronograph registers at 9 and 3 represent the running seconds and a 30 minute counter respectively. Both sub dials have been rendered nicely with the chapter rings raked at an angle a little above the hands giving a sense of depth to the dial. All the printing on the dial excluding the branding at 12 and the text at 6 has been done in the color yellow which resonates the official color scheme of Only Watch 2017. Another nice detail and probably my favorite one on this dial is the use of smoked sapphire as the base of the dial showing off just the right amount of the JCAA05 caliber powering this watch.
The Epic X Chrono Only Watch 2017 features a Black DLC grade 5 titanium case, which has a diameter of 47mm and a height of 14mm. The case is flanked by 2 rubber chronograph pushers and a crown on the right, and another crown at 10 on the left. Both the crowns are of screw down variety, ensuring a water resistance of a solid 200 meters. As seen on the dial of the watch, the pushers along with the grip on the crowns has been done in yellow providing a nice contrast against the black case. A yellow colored sapphire crystal exhibition case back offers nice view of the movement powering this watch. My only major grievance related to the case, is its size. Though, the large case would definitely offer tons of wrist presence, this would definitely not be an easy watch to carry, especially for people with small to medium sized wrists.
The watch would be powered by Jacob and Co.’s skeletonized, self-winding, column wheel based caliber JCAA05. This movement comprises of 260 components and beats at a frequency of 28800 bph, offering a power reserve of 48 hours. An additional capability of this movement is the countdown timer, which can be set with the help of the rotating internal bezel, controlled by the crown at 10.
To wrap up things, I would like to say that the Jacob and Co. Epic X Chrono for Only Watch 2017 ticks almost all the right boxes for a luxury chronograph timepiece, except for maybe the large sized case. The watch would come on a yellow natural rubber strap with a DLC coated titanium folding buckle and would have the Only Watch 2017 logo engraved on the case back. As a bonus, the luck owner of this watch would get the opportunity to spend an evening in the company of Jacob Arabo, the owner and founder of Jacob and Co. The estimated auction price of this timepiece would be between 20000 – 25000 CHF.
