Jacob Arabo (born Yakov Arabov or Jacob Arabov
on June 3, 1965; also frequently known as "Jacob the Jeweler"
) is an American jewelry and watch designer who founded
Jacob & Company in 1986 and grew it to become an international luxury brand. He began strictly as a jeweler with bold designs that appealed to celebrities who became regular customers.
Early life
Arabo was born in
Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...
,
Uzbek SSR
Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...
,
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
as the youngest of five children and the only male.
As a youngster, he helped his sisters repair their jewelry.
He credits taking a photography course at the time, which gave him an understanding of design principles.
[Jacob & Co](_blank)
/ref>
His interest in watches began at the age of 13 when his father gave him a world time watch. A year later he had a part-time job assisting a watchmaker. According to Arabo, he "loved all the tiny parts and gears" and was "enthralled by his ather'sability to breathe life into a movement, to assemble it and then have it actually tell time."
In 1979, at the age of 14, he and his family emigrated to New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, looking for a better life and freedom from the communist system. They lived in Forest Hills, Queens
Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast, ...
, and he attended Forest Hills High School.
His father worked several jobs but had difficulty earning enough to support his family. Because of family difficulties, at the age of 16, Arabo discontinued his formal education before completing high school and enrolled in a six-month jewelry-making course. He graduated four months later. He found work at a local wholesale jewelry factory that made mass-market pieces earning $125 a week. By the time he was 17 years old he was designing his own pieces at night in his bedroom while working at the factory during the day.
Career
As a teenager, Jacob Arabo was working for a traditional jewelry manufacturer in the New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
Diamond District on 47th Street and making his own jewelry in his family's house at night. Eventually, he moved his makeshift workshop to a permanent factory in the Diamond District. At this point, Arabo specialized in gold jewelry, creating his own designs. However, he was still working for clients within the jewelry industry by producing traditional jewels for distributors and retailers.
In 1986, at the age of 21, Arabo founded the retail jewelry company Diamond Quasar, doing business under the Jacob & Co brand making his own designs for private clients. By the early 1990s, he had established his own kiosk in New York's Diamond District. His innovative pieces caught the attention of the late rapper Notorious B.I.G.
Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...
, who gave him the moniker "Jacob the Jeweler," and introduced him to his entertainment friends. The moniker has also appeared in rap songs by Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...
, Nas
Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones.
Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to:
Aviation
* Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea
* National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia
** Nas Air ( ...
and other rapper
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
s.
Arabo started collaborating with entertainers on custom designs. In the 1990s, he was one of the first jewelers to create big diamond jewels for men, a trend that is mainstream today.
Hip-hop artists who were Arabo's clients included Sean "Puffy" Combs
Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent direct ...
, Biz Markie
Marcel Theo Hall (April 8, 1964 – July 16, 2021), known professionally as Biz Markie, was an American rapper, singer, songwriter, DJ, and record producer. Markie was best known for his 1989 single "Just a Friend", which became a Top 40 hit in ...
, Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...
, Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
, 50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...
, and Big Sean
Sean Michael Leonard Anderson (born March 25, 1988), known professionally as Big Sean, is an American rapper. Anderson began his music career in 2007 and gained popularity in 2010 with his third mixtape '' Finally Famous Vol. 3: Big''. He then s ...
. Other clients include various prominent entertainers and athletes, including Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
, Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...
, Pharrell
Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...
, Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
, David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
and Victoria Beckham
Victoria Caroline Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spice. Wi ...
, Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...
, Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek Pinault ( , ; born Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez; September 2, 1966) is a Mexican and American actress and film producer. She began her career in Mexico with starring roles in the telenovela ''Teresa'' (1989–1991) as well as the ...
, Sofia Vergara
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
, Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
, Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the whi ...
and Canelo Álvarez
Santos Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez Barragán (; born 18 July 1990) is a Mexican professional boxer. He has won multiple world championships in four weight classes from light middleweight to light heavyweight, including unified titles in three of ...
.
Arabo created a quartz watch
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, ...
collection called the Five Time Zone in 2002, which combined bold primary colors with multiple time zone technology and was worn by both men and women. Naomi Campbell
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...
, Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2.
Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...
, Angela Bassett
Angela Evelyn Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is an American actress. She had her breakthrough with her portrayal of singer Tina Turner in the biopic ''What's Love Got to Do with It'' (1993), which garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award ...
, Derek Jeter
Derek Sanderson Jeter ( ; born June 26, 1974) is an American former professional baseball shortstop, businessman, and baseball executive. As a player, Jeter spent his entire 20-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees ...
, and other celebrities have worn watches from the collection. One of the features of the Five Time Zone Watch was its interchangeable bezel, in which a stainless steel bezel can be replaced with a bezel paved with diamonds. The watch was highly customizable, and Arabo made several versions of the watch for his clients, including Leonardo DiCaprio for his charity and designer Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh (; September 30, 1980 – November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilitie ...
.
Arabo moved from the Diamond District to a mine-inspired flagship boutique at 57th Street and Park Ave
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Ave ...
in 2004.
Arabo was arrested in 2006 on accusations that he and others conspired to launder about $270 million in drug profits for the Black Mafia Family
The Black Mafia Family (BMF) was a drug trafficking and money laundering organization in the United States.
The Black Mafia Family was founded in 1985, in Southwest Detroit by brothers Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and Terry "Southwest T" F ...
. These charges were eventually dropped and in June 2008 Arabo pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of falsifying records and giving false statements as part of a deal he struck with federal prosecutors. The judge sentenced Arabo to a 2.5 year sentence in federal prison and ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine and an additional $2,000,000 as forfeiture to the US government.
In 2007, Arabo founded Jacob & Co. SA in Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
, Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, and introduced his first high-watchmaking timepiece, the Quenttin. It was the first watch to have a vertical tourbillon
In horology, a tourbillon (; "whirlwind") is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement to increase accuracy. It was developed around 1795 and patented by the Swiss-French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet on June 26, 1801. In a tourbill ...
and a 31-day power reserve, at the time the world's longest power reserve. In October 2007, Arabo was charged for falsifying records and lying to investigators. In June 2008, he was sentenced to 30 months and released in April 2010.
In 2013, Arabo created the Epic SF24, a two time zone watch that uses a patented fully mechanical split-flap system to display the time in 24 cities around the world. Inspired by the old split-flap board at airport and train terminals, it was the first time a system like this was used in a mechanical watch.
Arabo's company Jacob & Co. released the celestial-themed Astronomia Tourbillon in 2013, initially introduced at Baselworld 2013. By 2016, there were 99 iterations of the Astronomia Tourbillon.
In 2019, Arabo was invited to create the crown and serve as a judge for the Miss World America 2019
Miss World America 2019 was the 11th edition of the Miss World America pageant and was held on October 12, 2019. 42 contestants from all over the country competed for the crown. Marisa Butler of Maine crowned her successor Emmy Rose Cuvelier of S ...
pageant. The crown was crafted of 18k white gold
Pure gold is slightly reddish yellow in color, but colored gold in various other colors can be produced by alloying gold with other elements.
Colored golds can be classified in three groups:
* Alloys with silver and copper in various proportions ...
and adorned with 164 carats of Colombian emeralds and 95 carats of diamonds.
Magazine features
Arabo was featured in a 2016 cover story in the watch magazine ''Revolution'', titled "The Man Who Would be King." He was also featured in the watch magazine ''GMT'' in a 2018 story titled "Jacob & Co.: Spectacular Horology."
Television
Arabo has also appeared in '' Explained - Diamonds'', a 2019 Vox and Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
documentary TV show.
Awards
Jacob & Co.'s watch, "The World is Yours", was a 2006 ''Travel + Leisure
Travel + Leisure Co. (formerly Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) is an American timeshare company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownershi ...
'' Design Award winner.
In popular culture
Arabo was featured in the 2004 video game '' Def Jam: Fight For NY'', in which the players' hip-hop characters compete to earn cash with which they can buy jewelry from Jacob the Jeweler.
He is also well known in the entertainment industry for his unique jewelry designs and is mentioned in several hip-hop songs as "Jacob the Jeweler" or just "Jacob".
In 2020, Arabo made a cameo appearance in Drake's "When To Say When & Chicago Freestyle" music video.
Personal life
Arabo married his wife, Angela — who is also Bukharian Jewish
Bukharan Jews ( Bukharian: יהודיאני בוכארא/яҳудиёни Бухоро, ''Yahudiyoni Bukhoro''; he, יהודי בוכרה, ''Yehudey Bukhara''), in modern times also called Bukharian Jews ( Bukharian: יהודיאני בוכאר ...
— when he was 24. The couple lives in Forest Hills, Queens
Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast, ...
, in a brick Colonial house they bought for $1.17 million in 1999.
References
External links
Jacob & Co official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arabo, Jacob
1965 births
Living people
People from New York City
American jewellers
American watchmakers (people)
American people of Uzbekistani-Jewish descent
Bukharan Jews
Uzbekistani emigrants to the United States
Uzbekistani Jews
Soviet emigrants to the United States