In contrast to the unique model with subdials marked “New York,” “L.A.,” “Tokyo,” and “Paris,” Drake’s watches are unmarked and have curvy Alain Silberstein-like handsets, making it barely tougher to inform the time. Again in 2004, in fact, it’d moderately be assumed that the wearer of a 5 Time Zone watch would possibly really be utilizing it to reference the time world wide. Within the age of the smartphone, legibility might be past the purpose— Drake most likely isn’t glancing down angrily at his wrist in a membership at 3 a.m. making an attempt to discern the hour in Paris.
Arabo’s 5 Time Zone was the right product of its time: colourful, loud, and, with its helpful complication, international. The mannequin predated the extra formal relationship between hip-hop and nice watchmaking—or music and nice watchmaking, extra broadly. The 5 Time Zone spoke to Arabo’s star shoppers’ jet-setting way of life, and slot in nicely with the brash and daring approach wherein each women and men had been dressing within the early 2000s. Whereas many early adopters of Jacob & Co.’s signature piece could have upgraded their tastes to difficult Patek or ultra-high-tech Richard Mille—Jay-Z and Pharell come to thoughts—Jacob & Co. remains to be very a lot a part of the hip-hop dialog. Certainly, having upped his recreation from quartz to über-complicated mechanical items, Arabo’s watches nonetheless have a spot on the wrists of the wealthy and well-known. No surprise Drake couldn’t assist however rock two 5 Time Zones concurrently.
