Mystery dials were invented more than two centuries ago by a watchmaker who was also a magician. The hands appear to float in air, suspended in sapphire crystal with no visible mechanism connecting them to any movement. The illusion holds even knowing the secret.
Jacob and Co’s Brilliant Mystery Pave Diamonds White Gold takes that centuries-old concept and frames it in 476 round white diamonds totalling 8.43 carats, set in polished 18K rose gold across a 38mm case. The black triangular hour and minute hands hang in their sapphire panes, surrounded by a case that catches light from every angle. The effect is transparency meeting brilliance — the fire of the stones echoing the illusory movement of the hands.
The Gotham City, also from Jacob and Co, takes a different direction entirely. A partnership with DC Comics, it is a 45.5mm watch housing twin flying sequential high-speed triple-axis tourbillons, its movement spinning at eight and twenty-four seconds respectively — figures that qualify as high-speed by any measure. Available in black DLC titanium or 18K rose gold, limited to 36 pieces in each material, it is designed for someone who sees no contradiction between precision engineering and a sense of play.
Both watches demonstrate the house’s central proposition: that extreme watchmaking and extreme design are not in competition. They are the same project.