This Bugatti Watch Features An Actual Working W16 Engine

Jacob & Co. and Bugatti formed a partnership last year to create new timepieces to celebrate the car company, and the high-end watchmaker has really pulled out the stops on its latest collaboration.

Rather than just simply branding a logo on the face, the new Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon has a miniaturized and working recreation of the real Chiron’s W16 engine.

With the push of a button on the case, the movement, or ‘engine block’, of the Tourbillon comes to life. A crankshaft turns, 16 pistons move up and down in their cylinders, and two turbochargers (down from four on the car) spin their turbines. The crankshaft is said to be one of the smallest and most complicated parts every made for a watch and, in all, the entire timepiece has 578 parts to make it all work, all hand assembled.

That movement is suspended by four tiny shock absorbers, and it’s all housed under a huge sapphire crystal. It also has a ‘one minute tourbillon cage’ that compensates for gravity on the watch movement; you can see it through a window that resembles the Bugatti grille.

At $280,000, it’s a pricey way to tell the time. But if you do own a Bugatti Chiron, we’re guessing the cost isn’t an issue anyway.

*Images courtesy of Bugatti