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While the Swiss luxury watch industry is recognised for its centuries-old craftsmanship, the industry faces significant headwinds amid fluctuating demand and changing consumer preferences.
The central European country’s exports hit record highs in 2023 — with its luxury watch market projected to reach $134.53 billion by 2032 — but Morgan Stanley’s Swiss Watcher Report shows that the nation’s watchmaking is becoming increasingly concentrated. This means fewer brands are capturing larger market share, and the number of exported units declining dramatically.
For watch brands navigating these pressures, distinctive positioning and cultural relevance are now key differentiators. As a privately owned American company in a Swiss-dominated industry, Jacob & Co. positions itself as a disruptive force in luxury watchmaking. Founded in 1986 by Jacob Arabo, the brand is celebrating its 40th anniversary next year. As one of the few American luxury watchmakers in a field where Swiss players constitute the majority, it has plenty to celebrate.
Unlike many Swiss watchmakers with corporate structures and group ownership, Jacob & Co. carries its founder’s name — a personal connection that extends into how the brand engages with its audience. While Jacob Arabo maintains his social media channels separately from the brand’s official presence, he offers his followers a glimpse behind the curtain in a way that few traditional Swiss brands, with their formal, institutional approaches, attempt.
The brand’s value proposition stems from both its high-end watchmaking and jewellery expertise, as well as its strategic understanding of building both cultural relevance and client relationships. Its goal is to stay close to contemporary culture, catering to self-made entrepreneurs, celebrities, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals seeking distinctive timepieces that help them stand out rather than blend in.
It’s a timely approach. BoF’s State of Fashion Luxury Report, produced in partnership with McKinsey & Co., states that high spenders and above make up only 2 to 4 percent of the luxury client base but are projected to drive 65 to 80 percent of growth from 2023 to 2027.
Strategic engagement with these individuals at Jacob & Co. is reinforced through cross-cultural partnership with the sectors that matter to these consumers, spanning entertainment, sports and automotive sectors — including “The Godfather” franchise, Manchester City FC and Bugatti.
Now, BoF sits down with Benjamin Arabov, chief executive officer of Jacob & Co. and son of founder Jacob Arabo, to discuss the brand’s disruptive strategy, its resilience amid luxury market slowdowns, and how the company envisions long-term success in today’s evolving watch market.
How has Jacob & Co. approached the luxury market slowdown?
Swiss watch imports have been down over the past couple of years, but data shows that the segment experiencing the slowdown is primarily lower-end watches. As an ultra-high-end brand — the majority of our revenue comes from watches priced between $100,000 - $500,000 US dollars — we see that customer base remaining strong. This puts us in a different market segment to brands who operate in more of mass luxury space and have huge demand for their established, entry-level designs.
I believe we have also used our American heritage to our advantage. As a privately owned American company, we have scope to be as creative as we’d like to be across product development, marketing, content and partnerships.
As one of the few luxury watch brands operating outside of traditional industry structures, we can bring a different perspective to the industry. We showcase an alternative way of doing business, and this approach has really worked to our advantage.
How has your background in marketing and data shaped your leadership of Jacob & Co.?
Prior to my involvement, the company primarily focused on billboard advertising. Given my ten years in the industry, including seven years running a digital marketing agency, I have made digital marketing 100 percent of our strategic focus.
This technical understanding of digital marketing — especially social — has been a game-changer for us in the watch industry. We focus on visual marketing and creating content that genuinely resonates with our clientele, rather than designing content to seek board approval. Our philosophy is simple: we create content that we ourselves would want to engage with, believing that if we like it, others will too.
For a relatively young company competing against watch brands that have been around for over a century, traditional marketing would require enormous time and money to build brand recognition. By doubling down on digital marketing and social media, we’ve transformed our business over the past five years.
Innovation for us is not just about introducing something new — it is about creating what’s truly never been imagined before.
The results speak for themselves: when I started in late 2020, we had about a million followers across all social media platforms. And today, we are at almost 20 million.. These marketing efforts have been instrumental in growing the business to this level.
How has Jacob & Co.’s partnerships strategy evolved?
We are working to build something iconic, so we seek collaborators who share that same level of ambition. Whether it’s projects, people or products, we associate ourselves with partners who have achieved something extraordinary – because reaching that level requires tremendous resilience and creativity.
Our ongoing partnership with Bugatti is a great example of this. Both brands share an ambition to design something hyper-luxury that captures the soul of performance and precision. Together, we have fused cutting-edge horology with hypercar engineering, resulting in timepieces that are as bold, complex and exhilarating as the machines that inspired them. As a result, we have created groundbreaking pieces such as the Bugatti Tourbillon and Bugatti Chiron, among others.
This philosophy extends to our clientele as well. There is a powerful connection around starting from nothing and building something meaningful — whether that’s through entrepreneurship, creative endeavours or design.
This authentic connection has driven significant growth for us — it’s evident in our retail network, building our presence in key hubs such as Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Paris.
Jacob & Co. carries your father’s name — how does that legacy shape your approach to design?
Jacob comes from humble beginnings — he was making engagement rings and tennis bracelets in New York, on Manhattan’s 47th Street, as a teenager. Although the company has grown tremendously since then, Jacob remains deeply involved in the business — particularly in the design process. He would obsess over every watch — right down to the packaging. Whether it’s high-profile collaborations — like Tom Brady wearing one of our watches at this year’s Super Bowl — or day-to-day product development, Jacob’s hands-on approach continues to shape everything we do.
While the company has grown too large for him to personally oversee every single facet of the business, he ensures his personal touch is felt throughout the process. This translates into our broader philosophy: for customers to feel that if they are wearing one of our watches, there is a slim chance of seeing another person with the same exact piece.
As a privately owned American company, we have scope to be as creative as we’d like to be across product development, marketing, content and partnerships.
It is a different strategy compared to other well-known watchmakers — but we work to make sure our customers feel that their watch was made specifically for them. That is the type of personal connection we strive for.
As Jacob & Co. approaches its 40th anniversary, how do you view the brand’s legacy?
I would like our legacy to be one of creation, innovation and disruption. We are committed to continuing this intensive R&D process and pushing boundaries, even when it is challenging — or even stressful. This means that we don’t want to follow specific trends as we have our own distinctive brand DNA.
Innovation for us is not just about introducing something new — it is about creating what’s truly never been imagined before. The Astronomia Revolution Fourth Dimension is a perfect embodiment of that mindset. With its record-breaking tourbillon rotating across four independent axes, it breaks the traditional boundaries of watchmaking and sets an entirely new standard — one that we aim to define.
Going back to our origins — of starting from nothing, and building from that — I think that sense of entrepreneurship is what defines us and is often what allows us to build an emotional connection with our clientele. Other luxury brands may have been around for hundreds of years, but as an entrepreneur, or as a leader in the creative or design space, that emotional resonance might be missing. Our link to creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation is key.
Lastly, the brand’s expansion over the past five years has shown that we are here to stay.
This is a sponsored feature paid for by Jacob & Co. as part of a BoF partnership.
