Editorials
Diamond Watches: The Pinnacle of High Jewelry Watchmaking
January 13, 2025
Their light is unique. Their aura, unmatched. And their lasting legacy makes them special among all timepieces. A watch with diamonds is about craft, about gem quality and all about absolute preciousness. Diamond watches for women and diamond watches for men alike express affluence and taste in the most precious manner. But not all diamond watches are equal. They answer to a refined hierarchy of quality and worth.
The Art of Diamond Setting: A Gradual Masterpiece
The first metric in that scale is carat weight. It's the most obvious marker of prestige and it is directly influenced by which parts of the watch have been set.
The first level of diamond setting on a watch is the bezel. It's the part that surrounds the dial from the outside, and it ideally lends itself to the addition of diamonds. The hour markers on the dial are also ideal candidates, as they add light from within the timepiece.
The following step is to set the entire dial, an operation that makes it enter the coveted realm of actual high jewelry watches.
The third step is probably the most complex: setting a watch case is a demanding option, because a case is an elaborate shape. It may look round, or rectangular or square, but it's in fact a three-dimensional object with subtle curves. It takes the best craftsmanship to set them. Depending on which part is adorned with diamonds, the number of gems, and therefore the carat weight, rises.
The Quality of Diamonds: A Standard of Perfection
The second metric of quality in a luxury diamond watch is the quality of the diamonds. Setting a watch presents a specific set of demands. As opposed to a ring or an earring, where gems can be set in an open way, with light entering from all sides, a diamond set on a watch will receive light only from one direction, which is from above. The quality of the diamonds must be of superior level. Their whiteness, their clarity must be obvious from the first look. Also, the level of inclusions within must be low as they render a gem more fragile. Setting a gem in a watch is much harder on their crystalline structure as setting them on a ring.
Another subtle quality criterion in selecting a diamond watch is the size of the gems. It's easier and much more economical to set anything with smaller diamonds. The larger they are, the more expensive they get per carat, and that effect grows exponentially in watches.
One of the trademarks of Jacob & Co. diamond watches is that the individual gems used by the brand are large, some of the largest, whitest and most artistically set of all available. Especially because one of the brand's signatures is the invisible setting, one that leaves no space between gems, therefore demanding the best cut ones, along with the best craftsmanship to execute the setting.
Full-Set Timepieces: The Ultimate Expression of Luxury
When all the quality factors of a diamond watch are combined, there is one kind that emerges as the most elaborate and precious of them all. They happen to be a signature of the Jacob & Co. brand. Full-set timepieces are rare and the most coveted of all diamond watches. Setting the case and dial with exceptionally large baguette-cut diamonds, with the invisible setting technique, is but a starting point in some of Jacob & Co.'s collections such as Brilliant Baguette. These are also available on full diamond-set bracelets, and some of them even have diamonds added onto the mechanical movements that power these timepieces, redefining the boundaries of horological artistry.
Diamond Watches for Men
The art of diamond watches for men has an undisputed champion, a collection that has stood out since its creation in 2016. Billionaire is the ultimate expression of full diamond-set timepieces, featuring hundreds of carats of emerald-cut (or Ashoka-cut) white diamonds of the highest clarity and the highest levels of whiteness. They inhabit the skeleton tourbillon movement, the bezel, the case and the entire bracelet of these watches, almost to the point where they look like they are made of pure light.
The Billionaire collection is not merely a watch; it is a declaration of artistry, luxury, and vision. Its bold designs, intricate settings, and unparalleled brilliance place it in a class of its own, where timekeeping meets the eternal allure of diamonds.
Diamond Watches for Women
Diamond watches for women have proven to be an enduring pillar of high jewelry watchmaking, with several levels of preciousness depending on the setting technique and therefore, the heft of the diamonds being set.
A timepiece such as Brilliant Pavé offers immense brilliance and radiance with several hundreds of brilliant-cut gems. Brilliant Mystery will shift to baguette-cut diamonds by the hundreds, set on every single surface of its elaborate design, achieving a mesmerizing effect of light and transparency.
