In Depth · Jacob & Co.

Does the Palatial Tourbillon let its repeater be heard?

Jacob & Co. puts a red mineral dial and flying tourbillon around a chiming movement whose gongs, hammers and revised governor deserve closer attention.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 8 October 2026

• Jacob & Co. pairs its Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater with a red mineral dial in a twelve-piece edition.
• A slide operates the repeater, while hammers and cathedral gongs remain visible through the caseback beside the flying tourbillon.
• The twelve-piece edition is priced at US$390,000; Australian pricing and local availability are unconfirmed.

I usually think of a minute repeater as a watch that ought to be listened to before it is looked at. Jacob & Co. makes that difficult with a transparent red dial, a flying tourbillon at six and a gold treble clef at nine. There is plenty to occupy the eye before anyone touches the slide on the case. The question is whether all that theatre gives the chiming mechanism a useful stage, or competes with it. Jacob & Co.'s current Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater makes the argument in twelve pieces.

A red dial that refuses to whisper

The dial is red mineral crystal, so the movement remains visible through a colour that shifts the emphasis away from a conventional silver or black face. Applied rose-gold hour markers provide a clear perimeter, while open hands reveal more of what sits underneath. The clef at nine and the hands shaped with a metronome in mind are the brand's musical references. Neither tells you how the watch sounds, of course, but they give the chime a visual vocabulary before it is heard.

I am less certain about the clef than the hands. A literal musical symbol is easy to understand, yet the better idea is the relationship between the open dial and the mechanism behind it. The tourbillon is prominent at six, where its one-minute rotation supplies movement even when the repeater is silent. The red field is assertive enough that the tourbillon does not need another decorative frame around it. That is a rare kind of restraint for a watch containing two complications that could each have carried a dial on their own.

The sound is made beside the movement

Move to the caseband and the slide arms the minute repeater. Once released, it strikes a low note for each hour, alternating high and low notes for the quarters, then high notes for the remaining minutes. Snail cams hold the time information, racks read their positions, and two hammers sound two cathedral gongs that wrap around the movement. Those are specific mechanical steps behind a familiar phrase, “minute repeater”; the watch has to translate the displayed time into a sequence a listener can count.

Jacob & Co. says it revised the movement from the original JCBM03 to the manually wound JCCM04. The stated changes include a redesigned flying tourbillon cage and a centrifugal governor engineered to operate quietly while the gongs sound. Through the open sapphire back, the striking components remain visible. An inaudible governor is a sensible aim, but the quality of the chime cannot be judged from the brand's photographs or specifications. That needs the watch in a room, with an ear beside it.

The maker says the cathedral gongs are formed, hardened, tuned and fitted by hand, with final adjustment made by ear. The longer path around the movement is intended to give them more resonance. Here is where the visible architecture becomes more than spectacle: seeing the hammers and gongs makes the act of listening less mysterious, even if the result itself still has to be heard. Sound has a route through the watch, and the caseback lets a curious owner follow much of it.

A relatively slim home for two complications

The 18-carat rose-gold case measures 43mm across and 12.3mm thick, with an anti-reflective sapphire crystal and 30 metres of water resistance. That thickness is a useful fact in a repeater with a tourbillon, because the mechanism has not been hidden inside an exceptionally deep case. The movement itself measures 6.1mm high and comprises 308 components, with 29 jewels, a 21,600-vibration-per-hour beat and a 90-hour power reserve. A long reserve matters here because the watch can remain wound while its owner decides when to hear it chime.

The red alligator strap and rose-gold pin buckle continue the dial's colour rather than pulling attention towards another material. Look closely at the back and the broad decorated plates are interrupted by an opening into the repeater's working parts. This is a design that wants to be seen from both sides, though the more interesting view may be the one that explains what a push of the slide is about to set in motion.

The first Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater arrived in 2014 as Jacob & Co.'s first minute repeater. Its current product page describes this red version as a twelve-piece return, one piece for each year since that original. I find the visual volume easier to accept once the mechanical sequence is understood: the dial may be loud, but the sound remains the reason the watch exists. Whether the actual chime earns that setting is a question no photograph can settle.

Palatial Flying Tourbillon Minute Repeater pricing and availability

Jacob & Co. lists reference PT500.40.NS.AC.A as a twelve-piece edition at US$390,000. Enquiries are handled through the brand; Australian pricing and local availability are unconfirmed.