There are two things that we often don’t think of them as being tied together, that’s music and time. However, when you think of it, music and time are intertwined. They remind us of each other; when you think of a memorable piece of music, your mind always goes back to a certain period when that tune was most popular or was composed. It’s with that in mind that Jacob & Co. created the Jacob & Co Opera Godfather Edition. In this watch, they have united two traditional Swedish crafts, that of time, which we are all conversant with, and that of music, which few people associate with Swedish people. One thing that you isn’t debatable is that its design truly unique. It’s been designed to be a wearable music box and at the same time, a timepiece. That’s not an easy thing to depict, which makes this watch worth having.
You will easily be captivated and even surprised with its musical mechanism as well as the triple-axis tourbillion when you see it in action. When you look at it, you will realize that there is a lot happening, and the fact that they have been combined together to make this watch work as it does is a technically impressive achievement. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, now if you get to see its video, you will agree that a million words aren’t enough to express the design in its full glory. The design defies traditional labels by going for a Jacob & Co Opera Godfather theme, and still featuring a tiny Don Vito Corleone that’s centrally placed.
The design is takes advantage of the miniaturization principle to put a music box in a wristwatch, where both are driven by one barrel. The melody pace is set by a regulating flywheel, which also controls complication’s speed. The melody plays from two cylinders with steel combs and pins, which generate musical sounds when the cylinders are driven by gears. To play the melody, hand-set pins from the two cylinders sweep over 30 blades, (each comb has15 blades). To achieve a greater accuracy, they manually inserted each of the 100 pins by hand.
The blades are able to produce the right melody because they have been fabricated to different lengths and strengths, which make them vibrate at different rates. As the music starts to play, the entire mechanical module which includes the tourbillin and the musical mechanism, the minute off-centered indication, and the hour hand, rotate through an angle of 120 degrees around the dial, in a period of 20 seconds.
The caliber JCFM02 has over 664 parts that have been fitted within a diameter of just 43 mm. It’s hand-wound and regulated by the triple-axis tourbillon. To counter the negative effects of gravity, a ballet of concentric cages are used to allow for a multi-dimensional rotation. The first axis takes 40-second rotation, and then the second one takes 3 minutes of rotation, while the third one takes 8 minutes of ration. The complexity of this design becomes evident when you consider the fact that it’s made of 97 part and only weighs 1.7 grams. This watch has a variable inertia-balance runs 21,600 oscillations per hour, while the power reserve that powers the watch has a 72-hour capacity.
When it comes to its finishing, the extent of the artistic mastery involved in its creation is evident. The centrally placed “Jacob & Co Opera Godfather” is engraved and painted by hand. The same applies to the gold music score; it’s also lacquered and engraved by hand, while the cylinders are gold-plated. The screw heads are mirror-polished, while the bridges and plate are shot-blasted, then PVD coated. The dial has a pair of blue hands, and its surface is embroidered with gold appliqués to make it stand out.
The movement is housed in a 47 mm case that’s fabricated from pink gold and DLC titanium. They have used a sapphire crystal that’s highly domed, which is a technical feat considering it consists of one part, and yet they have also managed to give it a clear cut angles. The highly domed shape allows you to view the complex movement from any angle without any impediment. The Jacob & Co. Opera is worn using an alligator strap, which is fastened with a folding clasp. To activate the melody, you just have to use a pusher located at 2 O’clock. The caliber JCFM02 is set and wound using two foldout crowns located at the back of the watch. It’s priced at $319.30, and although it isn’t the first musical watch, its design clearly stands out from the rest.
