The Business of Watches [029] Benjamin Arabov, CEO Of Jacob & Co.¶
Published on Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:00:00 +0000
A watch brand we don't always cover on Hodinkee is growing sales and volumes with its polarizing products and unique take on horology. Plus, we need your business-related questions for next week's Q&A episode!
Synopsis¶
In this episode of Hodinkee's Business of Watches podcast, CEO Benjamin Arabov discusses the remarkable growth of Jacob & Co., the luxury watch and jewelry brand founded by his father, Jacob "the Jeweler" Arabov. Despite industry-wide challenges, Jacob & Co. reported 180 million Swiss francs in sales in 2025, representing a 14% revenue increase and 24% volume growth, positioning it among the top 30-50 Swiss watch brands by sales.
Benjamin, who joined the company full-time in 2020 after running a successful digital marketing agency, explains how he restructured operations to allow his father to focus on design, innovation, and sales—his core strengths. The brand has expanded dramatically from just two points of sale in 2021 to over 115 locations today, primarily through franchise partnerships. Jacob & Co. produces approximately 5,000 watches annually, with 1,000-1,500 being high complications, at price points ranging from $14,000 to $8 million, with an average transaction of $150,000. The brand's largest markets are the Middle East, Mexico, and the United States, though Benjamin notes significant recent challenges in Dubai due to regional conflicts reducing foot traffic from 100 to 10 daily visitors in their boutique.
The conversation explores Jacob & Co.'s unique position in the watch industry as a design-first brand that challenges traditional conventions, creating pieces meant to elicit the response "I've never seen this before." Benjamin discusses their partnership with movement manufacturer Concepto, their strategy for winning over traditional watch enthusiasts, and the possibility of reinterpreting iconic models like the Five Time Zone watch that once dominated celebrity culture. Despite current market volatility, Benjamin remains optimistic about the brand's future, believing they've only achieved 10-15% of their potential.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Welcome to the business of watches, the Hoodie podcast where horology meets high finance, and we go behind the scenes to talk to the executives making things tick. This week, a brand we don't cover a lot at Hudinky, Jacob Co. Flamboyant, controversial, and expensive Jacobin Co. watches aren't for everyone, but they certainly are for some as the jewelry brand reports that it's among the 30 largest Swiss brands by sales. The brand reported 180 million Swiss francs in sales in 2025, according to Morgan Stanley. That's a 14% jump in revenue and a 24% increase in volumes. While most of the industry is struggling to stay flat, Jacob Co. is growing. We speak with CEO Benjamin Araboff, the son of the brand's founder, Jacob Araboff, and get the lowdown on how Jacob |
| Benjamin Arabov | Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Excellent. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Excellent. So for those who don't know the story of the brand, tell us your connection to Jacob and Co. and how long you've been involved with the brand and how long uh you've been in the CEO role and how you got here. |
| Benjamin Arabov | Sure. So my connection with the brand is that I'm the son of the founder, Jacob. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Jacob the Jeweler. Jacob the Jewel. Jacob Arabach. Jacob Arab. Some call |
| Benjamin Arabov | him now Jacob the Watches. I |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | s I saw a recent article uh saying |
| Benjamin Arabov | that, so that was cool to see. That's |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | cool. Yeah, he does he embrace that uh change in his nickname? |
| Benjamin Arabov | He embraces it for sure. So my journey started in twenty017, where Jacob asked me to support his marketing efforts. At the time, I was running my own business. It was a digital marketing agency focused on helping educational businesses get more enrollments online. And I was in the digital marketing space since 2010. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Mm-hmm. Digital marketing was my passion, |
| Benjamin Arabov | it was my interest, it was my curiosity. I started a successful business in the space. And in twenty seventeen, as he was exploring entering into the digital side of marketing for his brand, uh he asked me to to help him and and and work with the current team so I helped him like in a consulting type of role while I was still running my own business and in twenty twenty, at late twenty twenty, he asked me if I would join the company full time. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | This is in the middle of COVID, if I recall. In |
| Benjamin Arabov | the middle of COVID, yes. And it was an interesting time for me in my in my personal life because I was running my business already for eight years, and the business was set up in a way where it didn't need me on a day-to-day basis, and I was kind of losing interest in the industry. So I saw this really great and exciting opportunity for me to come on board, to partner with Jacob, to help him grow the business and for the brand to achieve the potential that I always saw that it had. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Hmm. And one of the first things |
| Benjamin Arabov | that that I did when I joined was evaluate everything that Jacob was doing and to remove everything that he absolutely doesn't love to do and is a burden for him. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | What kind of things were those at the time then? |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Aaron Ross Powell Operations operations. |
| Benjamin Arabov | Um running the business day to day. Yeah, running the business day to day, marketing, running the day-to-day of marketing. I really wanted him to focus on coming up with the big ideas, which he's absolutely a genius in, coming up with big ideas, working with the research and development team to execute those ideas and sales. You know, he's he's he's a master salesman. So I removed everything besides what he absolutely loves to do, which is to expand the sales side of the business and to come up with great ideas. And with that journey already five, six years now, we have some really exciting resul |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Absolutely. And I think I want to ask you later what I mean what it was like to grow up in your family. But I mean, let's just talk about the business of Jacob and Co. at the moment. I mean in the most recent Morgan Stanley report on the Swiss watch industry, you know, they're estimates, these are not hard numbers necessarily. They |
| Benjamin Arabov | are our hard numbers.. Okay So you |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | what I'm gonna get to is indeed uh they show you as um one of the fastest growing brands in Swiss uh watches, in the watch industry. You know, tell us how you've managed to achieve that at a time when the industry much of the industry is, you know, uh faces challenges. And what kind of growth uh are we talking about? |
| Benjamin Arabov | So year over year we grew I believe it was either thirteen or fourteen percent. And we were really excited and and and surprised when we saw that because before that report we have no we had no idea where we stand in terms of growth or not growth compared to our competitors. Because |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | you've never appeared in the report before, I believe. We |
| Benjamin Arabov | have appeared, yeah. Yeah, we have appeared. Okay. But um last year was a unique year. you L saidike, it was it was a rather challenging year for the industry. And it's hard to pinpoint one specific thing that we did that allowed us to achieve that, but we had a tremendous year with some new releases. We had one of our best years when it comes to the engagement and the interest of the brand online. Uh we track every metric that that that we can to help us identify if we're making progress, if more people are talking about us, if more people are looking at our content, if more people are exploring on our website. Trevor Burrus So |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | basically, you know, I mean that's not the most difficult information to get, but maybe you're getting it um at a at a much |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | more specific and high level. Trevor Burrus, yeah. |
| Benjamin Arabov | We're getting it at a really detailed granular level. And last year was our best year when it comes to the interest of the brand online. Aaron Powell |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Why is that is there anything specific you can point to? Is it a certain release? Aaron Powell |
| Benjamin Arabov | Yeah, it's it's a few releases. We had some really exciting partnerships that we launched. We launched our partnership with Saman Khan, who's a big star in India. We we launched our partnership with G Dragon. Uh we had some really exciting releases. And yeah, I mean, last year there was more people talking about or interested about our brand than ever before. And because of that, I feel like that also helped us and supported the year that we had. Trevor |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Burrus Yeah you you mentioned some um you know launches in in India so it is part of this a a story about growing into other markets internationally |
| Benjamin Arabov | absolutely last year we entered into thirty-eight new point of sales. That's not |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | insignificant. No, no, it's not. Th three |
| Benjamin Arabov | new stores and the rest shop and shops. Something I don't think many people know is that just in 2021 we only had two point of sales. Now we have over 115. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Just from my understanding, I mean, how does that work? Or are d does Jacob and Co. own these stores or and operate them or you do you work with partners? |
| Benjamin Arabov | We own some of them, but the majority of it is a partner that runs it locally in the industry. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | So it's a I should I shouldn't like a franchise. Like a |
| Benjamin Arabov | franchise, yes. Like a franchise. And |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | and is that an initiative that uh that started under under yourself, obviously? |
| Benjamin Arabov | Well, in partnership with Jacob, yes. And that was w also one of the things that which was strategic to allow him to to have more time to do it because really before he was r you know, doing just everything. And it's just it was just not sustainable to do everything. Also you have to be good at everything, which just nobody So I'm a true believer that people should focus on what they're truly good at and just focus on that. Because that's when true creativity or true execution happens. Aaron Powell |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And you know, for those who don't I mean, I think everybody does know the Jacob Co. name and has has seen some of your watches, but you know, let's let's pretend that someone's been living under a rock and and hasn't seen a uh or heard of Jacob |
| Benjamin Arabov | 10-second elevator pitch, I think the words that people say the most when they see our watches for the first time is I have never seen this before. And that is the reaction, emotional reaction that we want people to have, to say, wow, I have never seen that before. And as we continue to hear that year over year, we know that we're in the right direction. Because that's what I feel like we bring to the industry. Something that just is completely innovative and creative with not only technical details, but also design put together. Aaron Powell |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Yeah. I mean, it's certainly fair to say that when one sees a Jacob and Co-Watch, it often |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | looks like Like |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | the manufacturing process. So our current operation |
| Benjamin Arabov | is that we have a headquarters here in Geneva. That headquarters is responsible for production, research and development, design, logistics, and after sale. So we come up with the ideas and then we have a third party manufacturing company called Concepto which help us execute the movement side of things. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Yeah. I mean they're very well-known uh third party manufacturer, extremely uh complicated and uh extraordinary kind of |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | stuff comes out of Concepto. So does |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Concepto do all of your They |
| Benjamin Arabov | do ninety percent of our movements. Okay. Yeah. The doy ninety percent of our movements. They're our key partner. What we truly love about them, and Jacob's been working with with the CEO of that company for over twenty years, is that they have never said no to a challenge. Never. No matter how crazy the idea, no matter how innovative the idea is, they have never said no to it. They've always explored into the unknown with us, which is a really important piece of the puzzle for us, because Jacob, he's not a watchmaker as a lot of the founders are, uh especially in the independent space. He's a jeweler. He's a jeweler and he's a designer. So he comes to the table from a design perspective, which I think is pretty unique and rare in the space. And I think that is partly the reason why we do things without limitations, because he doesn't think of the constraints of what has been done before in the past, but he he thinks what could be accomplished in the future. Aaron Ross |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Powell What would you hold up as the most innovative or important piece that you've done in recent times that expresses what you're Aaron Powell |
| Benjamin Arabov | Honestly, I think the the Astronomia Regulator. The reason is because it's a timepiece that celebrates such a significant collection in our company, but it completely redefines the whole collection. It's the smallest astronomia that we've made and it's one of the most complicated astronomias that we made, displaying the times in three different sections of the watch, hours, minutes, and seconds, and we have the whole movement spinning three hundred and sixty degrees in in one minute. That collection is a celebration to the astronomia line. And the astronomia line put us on the map when it comes to high complications. It was the f it was the first complicated watch that Jacob launched in twenty fourteen. That's when uh he launched that watch in in Basel. Funny enough. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Very interesting. And where are you based? Where do you work out of? |
| Benjamin Arabov | We're based in New York. Yeah. So our our headquarters is the same building as our store on on fifty seventh and park. And we have the second floor, third floor, fourth floor, and fifth floor that, you know, each floor is a different department basically. So we work from that store, from that office. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And on the watches front, what kind of |
| Benjamin Arabov | The range is it starts at 14,000, all the way up to 8,000,000. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Mm-hmm. Uh we do have some models |
| Benjamin Arabov | in the millions, like the billionaire watches. And the average price point of somebody walking out of the store is about 150,000. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Interesting. And what's your top market? The US, I presume? |
| Benjamin Arabov | Our number one market is the Middle East. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Okay. Then it's Mexico. |
| Benjamin Arabov | And then it's United States. Interesting. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And how long is that configuration, Middle East first, Mexico and and then US? |
| Benjamin Arabov | Three, four years, I would say Giving the chance for people to see the actual watch has made a significant change in in our business because, you know, you gotta just see it. You just gotta see it. And it it's so animated where w you know, and to to see it in real life is just a completely different experience compared to seeing a video of it or on a website or whatever. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Yeah, and you know, obviously we're talking here on Hodinki's business of watches podcast. I think it's fair to say, and I don't think you'd disagree that Jacob Co. pieces aren't the traditional Hodinky watch enthusiast kind of timepiece. Are watch enthusiasts, watch nerds, people who live and breathe watches? Are you trying to reach those customers? And if you are then tell us, you know, why they should consider and be looking at Jacob Backer. |
| Benjamin Arabov | Absolutely. That crowd specifically is is taking longer. We need more patience for them, which we respect everybody's opinion, of course. And we are working very hard every day To convince them that we have a space in this industry, even though we took a different route or a different strategy compared to some of the independence that they highly respect, which are doing just incredible work. So they are a really important crowd for us. We are working every day to, you know, educate them on on our time pieces and our process and our innovation and creativity. And it's gonna happen slowly but surely. But I know that once they are convinced about our brand and our strategy, then our company just could go to the next level. Aaron Powell |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Yeah. And just to be clear, I mean what kind of sales, I mean what what you know um did Morgan Stanley estimate you're doing each year? Aaron |
| Benjamin Arabov | Powell We do last year we did a hundred and eighty million in sales for wholesale. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | For wholesale. For wholesale, yeah. So you |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | know that is not uh a small watchmaker. |
| Benjamin Arabov | No. Right? You are uh among |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | the top fifty brands in Switzerland. And so you talked about connecting with that enthusiast community. Are you looking to do you know more collaborations with well-known independent watchmakers, or you know, are you sort of locked in to that um conceptual relationship? Aaron |
| Benjamin Arabov | Ross Powell Well we feel the way that we would make progress on convincing this crowd of people is having really long Sure. And like this one. And educating. And educating people because what you see online is great, but to actually sit and have a conversation and and go through how we do things, our process and how we're you know what what you know what we're achieving and how we're achieving it, then perception slowly changes. And we see that collector by collector, they feel more comfortable and confident about working with our brand or purchasing our brand. And it's happened. It's happened. We have some really passionate collectors that purchase from independence, from from the top brands that integrate our watches in their collection because of how different and unique we are. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Absolutely. I mean I'm just looking at a picture here of your Godfather II watch. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | You know, I think there's some people uh who would immediately |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | say, I ha I have to have that watch. I have to have any watch that's associated with that. It's my favorite film or or there's some other kind of connection to it. But it also at the same time, are you closing off the brand to some audiences who would who would think I could never that's not my style of time piece. Aaron |
| Benjamin Arabov | Ross Powell Sure. Yeah. I mean we we we are very niche because of the products that we design and the process that we take to create them. But I think we've proven that even though it's niche, it's a big niche. It's there's size to the market. And I truly believe that we're still at anywhere from ten to fifteen percent of our potential. So um yeah, I I think we are, but uh there there's still a lot of room to grow in this niche. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Who's the typical Jacob and Co. watch customer? Watch client? |
| Benjamin Arabov | Somebody who appreciates our ability to do things different. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Mm-hmm. And in most cases, that person |
| Benjamin Arabov | is different himself. Whether he's an entrepreneur who took a different path to create his own success and people who who appreciate both design and technical ability combined together. That would be the the typical client for us. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And someone who who who can afford uh a watch. But uh I |
| Benjamin Arabov | wouldn't say that I don't think we have any customers who who bought our watch as the first watch. They either have a collection of a few pieces or an extensive collection, but you know, we we create very different and unique watches and and most of them are conversation pieces. So it's somebody who also wants people to see it and have that conversation. Which not everybody does. Somebody wants to wear a very thin Vauchron, which I love, under their wrist and just be cool, which is amazing. I love that. And I respect that. This is not this watch. It's a different ball game. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And and to have you know, you didn't work |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | uh uh for the company in your um entire professional life. Obviously you built an an another business before that. What kind of you know, tell me about your journey with watches? I mean um do you collect anything um outside of Jacob? Outside no. Outside of Jacob |
| Benjamin Arabov | Co. Outside no. I I do have a collection of of my own Jacob and Co. watches, but outside of the company I don't. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And growing up, what was your interest and exposure in the business and and watches and jewelry? |
| Benjamin Arabov | Aaron Powell Well, every night Jacob would come home with a different story. So my brothers and I we were really ingrained in in in kind of the day-to-day as if we were there at the office at the but in reality we were at school. Um but you know Jacob would come home and you know he's so charismatic and excited what's exciting what's going on and he would tell us these stories and you know we would learn from from them. And uh yeah, we we were there a and listened to them and and and kind of absorb the business. Um and now, somewhat twenty years later, the whole family works for the company. Even my my two brothers. My older brother's the commercial director of the company. Uh so it's a full family business. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And what should we think of uh of your father Jacob's role ex you know, you you you said designer, but I mean how much is is he involved still? |
| Benjamin Arabov | He is very much involved. Very much involved. People think that he retired or something like that, but he is very much involved. He's very active in in the business, he's really excited to see how much we've achieved in a very short period of time now. And he is is fully on board with a lot of energy to help us to continue to grow this thing. Because again, I really think that we're just at ten to fifteen percent of our potential. Aaron Powell |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And you know, one of the ways that I learned about Jacob and Co. was through this great piece in Hudinky a few years ago by my colleague Malika Crawford about the five time zone and the role that that watch played in shaping watch culture and all the celebrities that um were spotted wearing that watch. Is there a way for Jacob and Co. to recapture some of that uh magic that existed with that piece, whether through uh a new interpretation of it or you know um looking back to some other iconic well known models from different eras? |
| Benjamin Arabov | I will say that a reinterpretation of the five time zone is not off the table. It's such an iconic piece, and um it would be really exciting and cool to see it reinterpreted with our new language and DNA of high complications, but taking the the the the design essence of that watch and integrating it together could be something really cool. So it's not off the table. Aaron Powell |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Are there other candidates uh models that that you could do it, you know, try and do a similar thing with the uh as well? Or or is the the five time zone if we're gonna see um something? |
| Benjamin Arabov | If we would bring anything back, it would definitely be the five time zone. It was just so iconic. I mean it was just like it wasn't a technical watch by no means of course. But in terms of a fashion watch, it just it cornered the market completely. Really. It cornered the market and you had to have one to be corner I mean this is crazy. It's just crazy. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | That is an extraordinary thing. And that is what every brand aspires to. Can you get there again, though, and have a piece like that that is so front and center in popular col |
| Benjamin Arabov | I think our business model has changed because we went so high end uh with a price point it's it it would be rare to have you know unless we do an event of course but you know I don't think at this point we would want to have that same scenario because something that we pride ourselves on is the exclusivity of it. We don't produce many watches a year. You know, high complication we produce maybe a thousand to fifteen hundred a year. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Okay. To spread that out across the whole world |
| Benjamin Arabov | is nothing. It's a few pieces per country or et cetera. So it's just a c you know, it's just a completely different business model now. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | And in total production About |
| Benjamin Arabov | five thousand a year. About five thousand a year. So |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | that you know puts you in a company with uh a lot of uh uh other you know a long end zona makes about five thousand I love that brand by the |
| Benjamin Arabov | way. Love that brand. So last |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | thing, we'll wrap it up. I mean, how are you finding uh the market this year? There's a lot going on in the world. Your customers, your your biggest market is the Middle East. Uh U.S. is still a big market, which has been a great growth driver for the Swiss watch industry. How are things looking for this year? Do you think you can grow sales? |
| Benjamin Arabov | I think we will at the end of the year come up as a positive. Uh we're definitely feeling the the the the situations that are happening across the world. But we are we are optimistic that things will turn around and um when they do there's gonna be the the the the same purchasing power that was in the Middle East then the as it was in the previous years. So uh definitely feeling it. I would be lying if it said yeah everything is fine. I mean how how |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | what is it what has it feel felt like since |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | the conflict? Aaron Powell Yeah, I will tell you with |
| Benjamin Arabov | data. We used to have one hundred walk-ins on average a day in the Dubai boutique. A lot of people. Especially for our brand. And now it's like 10. Nothing that we did as a brand to decrease that demand or interest or curiosity. It's just traffic at the end of the day. And it's not just us. It's not just us. So that's the current situation and and w we're optimistic and that things will resolve and uh things will go back to normal um as they were before. |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | Excellent. Well optimistic outlook despite some uh perhaps unexpected challenges. Ben Arabach, thank you very much for joining us on the business of watches. Thank you, sir. Have a great day. |
| Announcer/Outro | And that's the business of watches |
| Host/Interviewer (Hodinkee) | for this episode. We hope you enjoyed. Please head on over to hodinky.com where you can join the discussion and leave any comments or questions about this episode or the business of watches in general. Who knows? We might even answer your question on a future episode. Thanks for listening and see you next time. |