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The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Alec Monopoly Is Outstanding Pop Art, Insane

Few other watches are as “out there” as the Astronomia Tourbillon series from jeweler and watchmaker to the stars Jacob & Co. Introduced in 2015, the series has just welcomed a new addition, which also marks the first-ever collaboration with world-renowned artist Alec Monopoly.
The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000 13 photos
Photo: Jacob & Co.
The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000The Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at $600,000
The New York City-based artist, known for his colorful and unique interpretations of the Monopoly characters, is accustomed to working with a variety of materials, on a variety of canvas sizes. For him, doing the same pop culture characters for the new watch was incredibly challenging.

The new timepiece is called Jacob & Co. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly, a very predictable name that hides a very unexpected design. The piece, which will be limited to just nine units, each priced at $600,000, is pop art at its best and most eccentric, and absolutely insane. Because some things can never translate all that well in writing, the video below offers a good appreciation of the kind of work that went into the making of the watch.

First, a few words about the Astronomia series, so this piece is put into context. Jacob & Co.’s motto is “Inspired by the impossible,” and nowhere else is that more apparent than in this series. Each limited-edition Astronomia Tourbillon model (and there are several of them) is meant to put an entire universe on your wrist. It’s heavy on visual storytelling, to the point where timekeeping takes up only a tiny space in the background – a very bold and potentially risky move for a watchmaker, but one that pays off spectacularly in this case.

The Jacob & Co\. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at \$600,000
Photo: Jacob & Co.
The Astronomia Tourbillon watches have various themes but a common element in the four-arm movement, with each complication moving independently from the others. One such watch is a lot on the eyes at first sight, because everything inside it is in constant motion. It’s precisely that which makes it stand out, because it showcases unparalleled workmanship.

Like the entire Astronomia series, this watch also features the iconic four complications: the hours and minutes display with differential gears system; the 1-carat, 288-facet spherical diamond that spins to complete a full rotation every minute; the Earth globe that also makes a full rotation every 60 seconds; and the double-axis tourbillon.

In between the four arms of the complications are Monopoly’s iconic statues, cut down to size to fit the watch, but still made of gold and painted in Monopoly’s trademark bright colors. There’s the ice cream Monopoly Man, the Scrooge McDuck interpretation, the dollar sign, and Money Wings (with a face mask, a sign of our times). The artist says that doing these statues was his most challenging task ever, because he’s never worked on such a small canvas before.

Like with every other watches in the series, you get the impression that legibility was not the focus, and rightly so: this is not a timepiece you buy for convenience, but because it stands out from everything else and is perfect in its apparent insanity. It is a “work of art within a work of art,” as Monopoly himself says. Inception, but in the world of haute horology.

The Jacob & Co\. Astronomia Tourbillon Alec Monopoly will be made in just 9 units, each priced at \$600,000
Photo: Jacob & Co.
The collaboration stems from a years-long friendship between Monopoly and Jacob Arabo, the founder of Jacob & Co. Monopoly says the first time he bought himself an Astronomia Tourbillon watch, he fell in love with the delicate but incredibly outlandish mechanism so, in this sense, his getting to put his art in one is a dream come true.

The Astronomia Alec Monopoly is powered by the Jacob & Co. manual winding caliber JCAM10 with 365 components, which comes with a 60-hour power reserve. The case is 18K rose gold, with a sapphire crystal dome, and four sapphire crystal windows on the sides, offering a good look inside, at the moving complications and the colorful tiny statues. As noted above, only nine units will be made.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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