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Bulgari Revives Gerald Genta Mickey Mouse and Adds a Worldtimer

Bulgari this week pays tribute to Gerald Genta with a renewed version of the famed designer’s Mickey Mouse watch. At the same time the watchmaker/jeweler adds a world time watch to its Octo Roma collection and revives a Papillon central tourbillon design, now set in an Octo Roma case. The original Papillon was a Daniel Roth jumping hour invention with ‘butterfly’ hands.

These debuts were just three Bulgari highlights at Geneva Watch Days 2021, where the Italo-Swiss watchmaker launched nine new models. These also included new models in the jeweled Divas’ Dream lineup and three Divina Mosaica watches, including one spectacular diamond-set model fitted with Bulgari’s thin minute repeater movement.

The new Gerald Genta Arena Retrograde with smiling Disney Mickey Mouse.

Gerald Genta Arena Retrograde with smiling Disney Mickey Mouse

Bulgari’s retro Retrograde watch, starring the world’s most famous mouse, pays tribute to the genius of Gerald Genta, who placed Mickey Mouse (and other Disney characters) on his own high-end watches starting in 1984. The Gerald Genta Mickey Mouse watches are today much sought-after by collectors.

You may recall that Bulgari in 2019 launched the first ode to Genta with its 50th Anniversary Arena Bi-Retro, which Bulgari released with only Gerald Genta’s name on the dial. Last year we saw a titanium version of the watch.

Those debuts recalled Bulgari’s acquisition of the Gérald Genta and Daniel Roth brands in 2000, a purchase that has played a significant role in building Bulgari’s haute horlogerie expertise.

Gérald Genta, who died in 2011 at the age of 80, designed many of the icons of modern watch design, including the Universal Genève Polerouter, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, the IWC Ingenieur, Cartier’s Pasha, the Omega Constellation, the Bvlgari Bvlgari and the Patek Philippe Nautilus. Many of these designs remain bestsellers for their respective brands.

This new Gerald Genta Arena Retrograde with smiling Disney Mickey Mouse marks the return of one of the most sought-after Genta designs. The watch’s debut also marks the next level in Bulgari’s ongoing reboot of the Gerald Genta line as its own brand. To accompany that expansion, Bulgari is developing a new Gerald Genta website.

The new watch almost perfectly mimics many of the original Gerald Genta designs, here nicely settled into 41mm steel Gerald Genta Arena case. In this version you’ll find Mickey showing the time amid an also-playful rhodium-plated sunray dial. Mickey’s left arm and white-gloved hand indicates the minutes on a 210-degree retrograde dial as a jumping hour indicator shows the hour at the 5 o’clock position.

Bulgari is making the Gerald Genta Arena Retrograde with smiling Disney Mickey Mouse as a limited edition of 150-pieces, all available only online at Bulgari. Price: 16,500 euros, with January 2022 delivery.

Octo Roma WorldTimer

Bulgari developed a new movement, Caliber BVL257, to power this world time watch, a first for the Octo Roma collection. And as a travel watch, it features instant reading of the time in twenty-four cities, which corresponds to the world’s primary time zones. This launch comes just days after the debut of another well-received Bulgari travel model, the Aluminum GMT watch.

The new Bulgari Octo Roma WorldTimer.

Echoing classic world timer dial layouts, the Octo Roma WorldTimer offers a central display of the hours, minutes and seconds combined with a double rotating disc on the outer edge. One of the disks is set with the names of the reference cities while the second displays the 24-hour scale. When read in tandem, they allow the wearer to read the time in multiple time zones.

The Octo Roma WorldTimer is also available with a black DLC case and black rubber strap.

Bulgari took some liberties with the cities listed around the dial of this new watch, opting to swap the more common Bermuda for St. Barts, and representing cities where Bulgari has (or will soon have) one of its own hotels.

This sporty watch is built within the brand’ excellent multi-faceted Octo Roma 41mm steel case with a blue dial and matching steel bracelet. A stealthier version can be had in a black DLC case with a black textured rubber strap. Price: $8,350.

We’ll have more details about Bulgari’s Geneva Watch Days launches in upcoming posts. We’ve posted a few teasers below for those who can’t wait until then.

The new Octo Roma Central Tourbillon Papillon. At the end of the 60 minutes indicated by one of the “butterfly” hands, the disc jumps to display the new time in the aperture.
The incredible Bulgari Divina Mosaica Minute Repeater.
Two debuts in the Divas’ Dream collection include models with dials in lapis lazuli (pictured) and malachite.

 

Specifications: Gerald Genta Arena Retrograde with smiling Disney Mickey Mouse

Movement: Mono-retrograde movement, jumping hour aperture at 5 o’clock, retrograde minutes hand on a 210-degree sector, 28,800 vph, 42- hour power reserve.

Case: Jumping hour aperture at 5 o’clock, retrograde minutes hand on a 210-degree sector.

Strap: Red textured padded rubber with Gerald Genta folding clasp in polished stainless steel.

Price: 16,500 euros, with January 2022 delivery.

 

Specifications: Bulgari Octo Roma WorldTimer Stainless Steel

Movement: Automatic BVL257 with World time display, hours, minutes and seconds, 24 time zones and 24-hour indicator; 42-hour power reserve, frequency of 28,800 vph (4Hz).

Case: 41mm by 11.35mm 904L stainless steel with satin-brushed/polished finish, satin-brushed/polished bezel, transparent back, screw-lock steel crown set with a ceramic decoration and serving to set the time as well as the cities indication; water-resistant to 100 meters.

Dial: Blue sunburst, applied brushed rhodium-plated gold hour-markers.

Bracelet: Satin-brushed/polished steel bracelet with triple-blade folding clasp.

Price: $8,350.

 

Specifications: Bulgari Octo Roma WorldTimer Steel DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon)

Movement: Automatic BVL257 with World time display hours, minutes and seconds, 24 time zones and 24-hour indicator; 42-hour power reserve, frequency: 28,800 Vph (4Hz).

Case: 41mm by 11.35mm 904L steel, black sandblasted DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) finish, transparent caseback, screw-lock crown in DLC black steel set with a ceramic decoration and serving to set the time as well as the cities indication, water-resistant to 100 meters.

Dial: Matte black sandblasted, hour-markers, hours and minutes hands enhanced with SuperLuminova.

Strap: Black textured rubber strap with DLC steel pin buckle.

Price: $8,350.

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The Watches

Arnold & Son Updates Steel Globetrotter

Arnold & Son has updated the dials on two new steel-cased editions of its Globetrotter, the watchmaker’s distinctive world time watch.

The new Globetrotter Steel, with its sculpted half globe displaying the northern hemisphere framed in a sapphire crystal ring, offers the spare, more contemporary dial unveiled earlier this year on the red gold Globetrotter. But instead of that model’s gold markers, this new edition offers Roman numerals to indicate hours.

The Arnold & Son Globetrotter Steel, showing the limited edition blue dial model.

That arched steel bridge spanning the globe does more that catch the eye. It holds a functional ruby atop the domed dial. Reading world times starts at the ruby, where the eye imagines the start of a longitude line that extends to the 24-hour sapphire ring that surrounds the dial. The wearer identifies local time simply by reading the red hands.

At the center of the 45mm Globetrotter Steel, the hemisphere sculpture features rhodium-plated and polished continents with matte-polished mountain ranges. These are surrounded by hand-painted oceans with layers of blue lacquer pigments enriched with mother-of-pearl powder. (Arnold & Son notes that it also offer a southern hemisphere edition of the Globetrotter Steel and can also customize the world map for special orders.)

Arnold & Son is offering a choice of two dials for the newest Globetrotter Steel. One new version displays the northern hemisphere surrounded by a brilliant lacquered blue with sunburst decoration, in a series of eighty-eight pieces. The other features a silvery white lacquered dial and with sunburst decoration. The latter model is not a limited edition.

Arnold & Son equips the Globetrotter Steel with the in-house automatic caliber A&S6022.

 Prices: CHF 18,900 (blue dial) and CHF17,900 (silvery white dial).

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Featured News

Ulysse Nardin Celebrates 175 Years with New Chronometers

Ulysse Nardin focuses on its rich history as a premier manufacturer of marine chronometers as it debuts seven new models within its Marine Torpilleur chronometer collection.

All of the debuts feature in-house calibers with silicon balance spring, and most also feature the brand’s Diamonsil (a silicon and diamond mix) escapement wheel and anchor. Among the offerings are two new movements, and all seven models are offered as numbered and limited editions.

Ulysse Nardin chronometers, new and old.

To signify the LeLocle watchmaker’s 175th anniversary, each model will feature “Chronometry since 1846” printed at 6 o’clock on the small seconds counter.

Marine Torpilleur Panda

For Panda dial enthusiasts Ulysse Nardin adds this variation of its Marine Torpilleur sporting two small dark blue dials. One at the top of the dial displays the power reserve indicator and the other shows the second hand and date. ) The watch is Ulysse Nardin’s first panda-style display.

The new Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Panda.

So-called ‘panda’ displays, which feature solid-colored subdials placed amid a light-colored primary dial, were given their moniker decades ago when early dials with the design were said to recall the face of a panda bear.

Inside Ulysse Nardin fits its own UN-118 movement, a solid caliber made even more precise and efficient with silicon and Diamonsil components. Limited to 300 pieces, the 42mm diameter steel-cased Marine Torpilleur Panda comes with a choice of either a brown or blue leather alligator strap, metal bracelet, a rubber strap or a R-Strap. Price: $8,200.

The new Marine Torpilleur Annual Chronograph.

Marine Torpilleur Annual Chronograph

With a dial design inspired by Ulysse Nardin pocket watch chronometers produced from 1936 to 1980, this eye-catching two-register 44mm steel chronograph also features a second useful function: annual calendar.

Ulysse Nardin is widely known for its mastery of the annual calendar, a function Ludwig Oechslin brought to the brand’s wristwatches within his perpetual calendar from 1996. With all settings adjustable both forward and backward by using the crown, the Ulysse Nardin annual calendar offered easy time-setting capability. This feature, initially found on very few wristwatches, remains a strong selling point throughout Ulysse Nardin’s collections.

Up close on the dial of the Marine Torpilleur Annual Chronograph.

The newest inclusion of that function in this Torpilleur Annual Chronograph finds the date at 6 o’clock with months indicated at 9 o’clock. Powered by the UN-153, an evolution of the earlier UN-150 movement, the debut offers a varnished white or a matte blue dial. Three hundred pieces will be made. Price: $12,100.

The Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur Moonphase with a Grand Complication Pocket Watch from 1920.

The Marine Torpilleur Moonphase

As critical to sailors as a precise chronometer, a moonphase indicator can be found on late 19th century Ulysse Nardin timepieces. When used together with a sextant, the lunar indication allowed sailors to devise more detailed navigation. In more recent years, the watchmaker has launched numerous high-profile astronomic-centered watches, notably the Ludwig Oechslin-devised Trilogy of Time series in the 1990s.

While the new Marine Torpilleur Moonphase is hardly as complex as any of those specialty items, the moonphase display reminds collectors of this brand’s deep history of creating astronomical displays, which likely spurred the inclusion of a moonphase model within this 175th anniversary collection. When adding the moonphase function to this watch, Ulysse Nardin creates UN-119, a variation of its UN-118 movement.

This new 42mm steel-cased watch comes with either a blue or white dial and will be offered as a limited edition of 300. Price: $9,900.

Ulysse Nardin chronometers, like this one from 1919, could be found on U.S. Navy ships.
Ulysse Nardin sold deck chronometers until 1980.

Two additional debuts

We’ll feature the remaining two models in the new Ulysse Nardin Marine Torpilleur collection in an upcoming post.

The two models each feature an enamel dial. One is a stunning blue-enamel-dial edition of the power reserve model with the panda dial (noted above) and the Marine Torpilleur Tourbillon Grand Feu. The latter, a rose-gold watch with a black enamel dial, is powered by caliber UN-128 Constant Manufacture with a flying tourbillon that features the technically advanced and patented Ulysse Nardin Escapement.

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The Watches

Meistersinger Celebrates Twenty Years with Vintage-Styled Chiming Watch

Meistersinger’s watches focus on one-hand time displays. The German-based watchmaker, founded twenty years ago, has become a favorite for those in search of an alternative wristwatch dial.

Meistersinger’s popularly priced collection offers a wide range of watches that feature one hand rotating over combined hour and minute markings around the dial – essentially echoing dials on many pre-eighteenth-century clocks.

Earlier this year, Meistersinger launched Bell Hora with another time-telling function deeply rooted in historical watchmaking and clock making: an hourly chime.

Meistersinger’s Edition Bell Hora is a limited edition of 100 units.

Today Meistersinger launches a new version of that chiming model, called Edition Bell Hora, as a limited edition of 100 units to celebrate the watchmaker’s twentieth anniversary. Where the premiere Meistersinger Bell Hora watch offered blue or white dials in an unlimited series, the latest model is designed in the style of many early pocket watches.  

The 43mm steel-cased Bell Hora features a ‘Sonnerie au passage’, which is the horological term for a chime heard as time proceeds. On the Bell Hora, the single chime activates at the start of each hour. This effectively, and pleasantly, alerts the wearer to the start of each new hour. 

If the wearer opts to turn the automatic chime off, he or she may simply press a pusher just above the crown to turn the function off.

To create the Bell Hora, Meistersinger fits its own chime module (a cleverly revised jump-hour gear configuration with its sound fork directly under the dial) atop a Sellita SW 200 automatic movement. Even with the chime function, the watch’s power reserve remains steady when worn, and will retain power off the wrist for thirty-eight hours.

The new dial is white, like many early clocks, with more distinct minute markers than found on the more contemporary dials on the Bell Hora editions seen earlier this year. A thinner numeral font and an italicized brand name also mark the new limited edition.

Price: 3,690 euro, or about $4,300. Expect availability in mid-September. 

 

Specifications: Meistersinger Edition Bell Hora

(Limited Edition of 100 pieces).

Movement: MS Bell (with Sellita SW 200 base), automatic, power reserve of 38 hours, hourly Sonnerie au Passage chime.

Case: 43 mm steel, sapphire crystal, 50 meters water resistance, four-screw exhibition back.

Dial: White with vintage-styled font. 

Bracelet: Brown leather.

Price: 3,690 euro, or about $4,300. 

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The Watches

Norqain’s New Neverest Sales to Assist Sherpa Families

Swiss watchmaker Norqain expands its sporty Adventure collection with Neverest, three steel-cased 40mm watches equipped with the brand’s own COSC-certified automatic movement. Sales from all three models will benefit the Butterfly Help Project, which helps families of sherpas who have lost their lives in the Himalayan mountains and gives their children access to education.

The Norqain Glacier

The Glacier

The first debut, called Adventure Neverest 40mm Glacier, features a silvered dial with a brushed steel case and a grey bezel and dial.

The Glacier’s greys are punctuated with a few red accents on the central seconds hand and the Chronometer inscription. The dial pattern here is meant to resemble “the jagged crevasses of Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous stage of the climb to Everest’s summit,” according to Norqain.

Norqain is quick to note that it has coated all the watch’s markers and hands with a supercharged version of SuperLuminova said to be 60% stronger than the standard stuff.  And appropriate to the watch’s sporty profile, Norqain has also nicely knurled the bezel’s edges to make rotating the unidirectional bezel a simpler chore.

Look for the Glacier on a steel bracelet ($3,250), a textured rubber strap ($3,050) or a flexible fabric strap (also $3,050).

The Norqain Adventure Neverest 40mm Limited Edition.

The Bi-Color

The remaining two debuts sport Norqain’s own block-link pattern dial with different color schemes and framed by a choice of a steel case or a steel case with red gold bezel.

The latter model, with a slightly dressier steel and gold combination, is limited to 100 pieces, which Norqain has engraved on the watch’s caseback. The watch’s red gold bezel is topped with a black ceramic ring. Options here include a textured black rubber strap with the same knurled style as the bezel ($4,380), a steel bracelet with an additional security clasp ($4,580), or a flexible fabric strap ($4,380).

The Norqain Adventure Neverest 40mm.

Finally Norqain offers a sportier version of the watch with an outdoor-themed forest green and black patterned dial.

The watch’s steel bezel also offers a black ceramic ring. Like its limited edition counterpart, this model is available with a stainless steel bracelet ($3,190), a black rubber strap ($2,990) or a flexible fabric strap ($2,990).

Inside all three Neverest watches Norqain places its superb Manufacture Calibre NN20/1.

Given this brand’s pedigree, with executive links to both Breitling and Tudor, we’d expect a focus on serious caliber technology, and that’s what Norqain delivered in February 2020 when it launched Calibers NN20/1 and NN20/2. Both calibers are being produced in partnership with Kenissi, a mechanical movement manufacturer founded by Tudor.

Inside all three Neverest watches Norqain places its Manufacture Caliber NN20/1.

The movements are extra shock resistant, COSC-certified and offer a power reserve of seventy hours. All three Neverest models are water resistant to 200 meters.  

 

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