“I believe in America. ” It’s the first line in The Godfather , the 1972 classic that jumpstarted a new genre in filmmaking: the gangster movie—although some would argue The Godfather is not about gangsters, but about family. Either way, the award-winning film (it took two Oscars and five Golden Globes), was the first movie Jacob Arabo of Jacob & Co.
saw when he came to America from Uzbekistan. Fifty years later, just as there are now three Godfather movies in the archives, Jacob & Co. has introduced a third Godfather watch.
It is the most complex version yet, loaded with references to the classic mob story: a music box plays the Godfather theme music on demand; the two rotating music-box barrels are etched with 13 famous quotes from the movie (“Leave the gun, take the Cannoli”; “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”; “It’s not personal, it’s business); 13 still shots from the movie are laboriously etched onto the case side in the order in which they appear in the film; a miniature grand piano bears the image of Marlon Brando in character as Don Corleone; there is a re-creation of the image of the puppeteer’s strings originally featured on Mario Puzo’s novel cover and on the movie poster; and at the center of the dial, a sculptured red rose to represent the one worn on Don Corleone’s lapel at his daughter’s wedding. It is almost incidental that the watch is a triple-axis flying tourbillon. It contains the caliber JCFM04, with 634 components.
“When I first came to the US from Uzbekistan in 1979, I was 14 years old, didn’t speak the language, and my family didn’t have a penny to its name,” says Jacob Arabo. “So we went to work really hard. It took me two years to earn the time and money to go to the movies.
The Godfather was being released again; it was the first movie I saw in a theater. ” The watch was launched in a full-immersion style. Press and VIP clients of the brand were flown to Sicily and taken on a tour that retraced the steps of Coppola and his film crew, visiting the locations where shooting took place in the area surrounding Taormina.
It included the church where Michael Corleone and Appolonia were married, the Vitello bar where Michael met Appolonia’s father; the mansion that served as Villa Corleone. Adding to the aura of authenticity was the presence of actor Gianni Russo, who played Carlo Rizzi, in the movie, husband of Don Corleone’s daughter, Connie. The 79-year-old actor was the star of the launch event, gathering an eager audience as he reminisced about the film set, why Marlon Brando nearly got him fired, and how, as a non-actor but as guy who was “connected,” landed a major role in The Godfather .
Throughout the experience, the theme from the movie played almost endlessly, by a live orchestra or band playing the theme song – at one point accompanied by Russo, who is also a singer. To top it off, an ever-present tray of cannolis seemed always within reach. Russo, the author of Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob , explained how he got the part in the movie.
At the time, real-life mafia crime boss Joe Colombo, for whom Russo had worked, formed an organization called The Italian-American Civil Rights League, and started a campaign to stop the film from being made. They felt Italian-Americans would be unfairly depicted in the film, Colombo demanded the terms “Mafia” and “Cosa Nostra” not be used in the film. The producers agreed to this, and also to hire League members (mobsters) as extras and advisers.
One of them was Gianni Russo. It was a decision that did not go over well with the star, Marlon Brando. “I could see Brando rolling his eyes, and he calls Coppola over and says, ‘This is an important character; he marries my daughter, undermines the family, yet he’s not an actor… you gotta rethink this,’” Russo told us at a dinner in Sicily.
“He’s trying to get me fired. I would never have been able to go back to the neighborhood. So I put my arm on him, and I walk him to the back of the room, and I say ‘let me tell you something Mr.
Brando, I respect your work, but if you screw this up, I will suck on your heart, and you will bleed out here today. ’ He stepped back, and said, ‘That was brilliant. ’ He thought I was acting.
” The incident convinced Brando that Russo would be good for the role. He stayed in the film. The Opera Godfather 50th Anniversary watch was four years in the making, according to Benjamin Arabov, CEO Jacob & Co.
“We wanted to create a full cinematic, graphic and musical recollection of Francis Ford Coppola’s cult classic that surpassed every previous iteration. In June of 2021, we were on a call with Paramount Pictures, from whom we had acquired the rights to The Godfather, and we started discussing how to rise to the occasion of the movie’s 50th anniversary. One of the things we wanted to do was reproduce scenes from the movie reel, and we decided to do it on the case side.
The biggest challenge by far was the etching. ” The images are rendered in 256 shades of gray and black. Jacob & Co worked with DM Surfaces, which created a high-intensity, high-precision femtolaser technology that allowed an unparalleled level of realism and vividness.
The key image of Don Vito Corleone, etched between the lugs at 6 o’clock. “We went through countless prototypes, each one slightly different, each one better, more precise. We wanted a true cinematic effect that triggers emotion,” says Benjamin Arabov.
Jacob & Co. will make 50 pieces of the Opera Godfather 50th Anniversary watch, in a white gold case measuring 49mm x 21mm thick. It is priced at $500,000.
The packaging includes a specially made fountain pen and a whiskey decanter. .
From: robbreport
URL: https://robbreport.com/style/watch-collector/jacob-and-co-50th-anniversary-godfather-500000-timepiece-1234767409/
