Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic masterpiece, The Godfather, blew away theatergoers for the first time 50 years ago.
To mark the landmark year, Jacob & Co., has made a 50th anniversary edition of its Opera Godfather timepiece that has a white gold case depicting 13 scenes from the movie in the order in which they appear on screen.
Jacob & Co also etched quotes from the film onto two music box barrels that play the evocative Speak Softly, Love track that that Mr Coppola commissioned for the soundtrack.
At a press event in Sicily, where many scenes from The Godfather were filmed, CEO Benjamin Arabov described the technical difficulties the company had to overcome to make the 50-piece limited edition watch.
The greatest challenge to overcome was the precision and miniaturization required to laser etch the 13 scenes onto the drum.
The pictures had to be so fine, existing laser etching was not sufficiently accurate, so a completely new technology had to be developed.
“Achieving this level of physical realism is simply breathtaking and it evokes a strong emotional response,” Mr Arabov says.
Jacob & Co. created its first Opera Godfather watch in 2019, and has been making it in limited quantities since.
The anniversary of The Godfather — a movie revered by the Arabov family since father Jacob arrived in America — was deemed too important for a simple reissue with the 50th date stamp added.
“When I first came to the USA 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 and it was the first movie I saw in a theater.”
It became a family mission to bring the Corleone family’s journey to life in a timepiece, not just in 2019, but on a different level for the 50th anniversary.
The etching process creates an almost imperceptible texture, so that just as you see the scene, you actually feel the frame from The Godfather’s movie reel. Chief among them, particularly visible while wearing the watch, is the image of Don Vito Corleone, etched between the lugs at 6 o’clock.
The watch has other symbols intertwined with the JCFM04 including The Godfather’s emblematic red rose between the two musical barrels, made from 18ct gold, that power the two-part music box mechanism.
“From the very beginning of the Opera Godfather, I wanted to go further, to celebrate the importance of this movie by showing actual scenes from it, says Jacob Arabo.
“I wanted it to be a literal tribute to everything the film stands for. But there is so little room. The entire piece is filled with components, and details and symbols. So for the Opera Godfather 50th Anniversary I came up with the idea of inscribing the movie’s key moments on the case, which seemed like a canvas waiting to be brought to life.”
The Opera Godfather 50th Anniversary is priced at around $500,000, and is sold in special wooded case, lined with red velvet, and comes with its own whiskey decanter and Montegrappa pen decorated with themes from the film.
