Serious watch executives in the Swiss Alps might frown upon Rihanna’s outré style choices, but they have a lot to thank her for, as she’s turned up the volume on timepieces and made them the most talked-about accessory of the season.
After wearing a £536,000 watch choker at Pharrell’s debut fashion show for Louis Vuitton in Paris, Rihanna stole the show at the Las Vegas Grand Prix over the weekend by wearing an all-black ensemble accessorised with a £320,000 anklet watch.
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The maker of these timepieces is Jacob Arabo, a long-time friend of the singer and founder of Jacob & Co – the company behind the most expensive watch launched this year with a $20 million price tag and the apt title of “Billionaire”.
“It’s always a pleasure to collaborate with Rihanna, because she loves to go beyond the boundaries of creativity, giving herself absolutely no limits. She definitely has a bold and eclectic sense of style that perfectly fits with the statement of Jacob & Co,” says Benjamin Arabov. Arabov is the son of Jacob Arabo (although he spells his surname differently), and has worked with his father and Rihanna’s stylists Jahleel Weaver and Amir Dayi on the pieces which were both personally commissioned by RiRi.
The choker watch, for example, features 338 baguette-cut white diamonds, totalling 30 carats, adorning the dial, crown and 18-carat white-gold case. An additional 338 diamonds glisten on the 47-millimetre Brilliant Flying Tourbillon, which powers the watch with the finest mechanism in Swiss horological history. The choker is a visually and physically weighty piece, which gave Mr Abramov some thoughts about its wearability. But Rihanna sported it with a denim Louis Vuitton outfit, a wool hat adorned by a brooch and her signature air of nonchalance.
