Object Of Desire · 2026
The Epic X Mahadev Edition puts the trishul, the damru and “Om Namah Shivaya” on a skeletonised dial that comes alive in blue after dark. It is the house’s first tribute to Lord Shiva — and it is sold in one country only.
Every reference and price we report is checked against the brand and its retailer before we publish — sources checked, never bought.
On 16 September 2026, Jacob & Co. unveiled the Epic X Mahadev Edition — the first time the New York high-watchmaking house has built a watch around Lord Shiva (Esquire India). It is a 44mm titanium skeleton on the brand’s sporty Epic X platform, and its openworked dial is a small altar: the trishul, the damru, the sacred Om, and the words “Om Namah Shivaya” at six o’clock. When the lights go down, blue Super-LumiNova sets it glowing. It is also, tellingly, sold in one market only — India, through a single retailer. This is exactly the kind of story-first, culturally specific grail this market has learned to chase, and we read it the same way we read the auction rooms — against where the money is actually going in 2026.
The actual watch, shown by Jacob & Co. on its official Instagram.
Not a print, not an engraving on the back — the deity is the dial.
The Epic X Mahadev Edition takes Jacob & Co.’s open, architectural Epic X and turns its skeletonised centre into a devotional scene. The figure of Lord Shiva sits at the heart of the movement, surrounded by the symbols most closely associated with him: the trishul (trident), the damru (the hourglass drum), and the sacred Om, with the mantra “Om Namah Shivaya” inscribed at the six o’clock position (Free Press Journal).
In the brand’s own reading, the trident stands for control over past, present and future, while the damru carries the flow of cosmic energy — the same rhythm, the marketing suggests, as a beating movement. It is the first time Jacob & Co. has dedicated a watch to Shiva, and it lands as the most overtly devotional piece in a growing line of India-inspired Epic X editions.
This is the trick the photos can’t quite hold: the watch has two faces.
In daylight the dial reads as fine, three-dimensional metalwork — a small sculpted panorama you have to lean in to decode. Then the lights drop, and Jacob & Co.’s blue Super-LumiNova takes over: Shiva and the surrounding symbols glow, and the composition transforms into what the house frames as divine energy and spiritual awakening (Esquire India).
It is a genuinely clever piece of theatre. A watch that is one object on the wrist at dinner and another entirely in a dark room is doing exactly what an object of desire is supposed to do — giving its owner a moment no one else in the room can see.
A watch that is fine sculpture by day and a glowing altar by night — built, for the first time, around Lord Shiva.
Strip away the symbolism and this is a serious skeleton sports watch.
| Detail | Specification |
|---|---|
| Case | 44mm titanium |
| Movement | JCAM02, hand-wound skeleton calibre |
| Frequency | 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz) |
| Power reserve | 48 hours |
| Dial | Skeletonised, with Lord Shiva, trishul, damru, Om and “Om Namah Shivaya” |
| Lume | Blue Super-LumiNova on the dial elements |
| Unveiled | 16 September 2026 (online) |
Specifications as reported at launch by Esquire India and Free Press Journal. Jacob & Co. had not published a full technical sheet at the time of writing; confirm the final specification and any limited-edition run with the retailer before you commit.
India-exclusive, one retailer, and a price the brand hasn’t published.
Here is the part that makes the Mahadev unusual even for Jacob & Co.: it is available exclusively through Ethos Watches in India (Esquire India). There is no global boutique roll-out; the piece was made for one market and sold through one partner.
On price, be careful with the numbers floating around. Jacob & Co. did not publish an official global figure at launch — one major report noted the price was simply not public (Free Press Journal), while Indian coverage has reported it at around ₹35.88 lakh (Esquire India). Treat that as an indicative figure, not a confirmed sticker: with an India-only, retailer-exclusive piece like this, the only number that counts is the one Ethos quotes you directly.
If you’re seriously considering it — or weighing it against another grail in the same money — that’s exactly the kind of question we’ll read for you plainly before you spend: is it fair value, is it realistically obtainable, and is it the smartest use of that budget. For the wider Indian buying picture, our guide on where luxury watches are cheaper for Indian buyers in 2026 is a useful companion.
A god on the dial is a very literal version of a much bigger shift.
Step back and the Mahadev fits a pattern we keep tracing. The watches that move people — and prices — in 2026 are the ones carrying a story you can retell: scarcity, culture, provenance, meaning. It is the same force that let a rare quartz Cartier Cheich become the most valuable Cartier ever sold, and the same one behind the split running through the 2026 market, where money has stopped chasing badges and started chasing narrative.
A watch built explicitly around a deity, sold in a single devotional market, is that logic at its most undiluted. Whether the Mahadev becomes collectible or stays a curiosity will come down to how few were made and how the market reads it — but the instinct behind it, that meaning now sells harder than mechanics, is the truest thing about it.
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