Bulgari

Featured Events September 22, 2023

Only Watch 2023 Favorites: Bulgari

We continue to highlight a few of our favorite watches from among the more than sixty watchmakers that have created timepieces for the Only Watch charity auction, which commences Sunday, November 5, in Geneva. Christie’s will auction these incredible one-of-a-kind watches to raise funds that benefit research in the battle against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

While you may have seen a few of the watches set for auction earlier this year when Only Watch announced them, we thought you’d enjoy seeing many of these impressive designs again just ahead of the event.

The watches are currently touring the globe. After concluding their U.S. visit at Christie’s in New York on September 17, the tour will visit Monaco next, followed by stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and back in Geneva. See the Only Watch website for tour dates and details.

In this post we highlight Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Only Watch (above), a unique version of its groundbreaking ultra-thin tourbillon watch created using Italian green marble and given 110 facets.

The green marble, named Verde di Alpi, comes from the Aosta Valley, the natural passage linking Switzerland and Italy through the Alps. Green is offset with white veins, which Bulgari symbolizes as serpentines of alpine forests and snowy peaks.

The watch’s 40mm black DLC titanium polished case and bracelet is covered with the green marble in a layer of 0.4mm – 0.5mm.

The dial also features a thin marble wafer (0.6-mm). Similarly, Bulgari set the bracelet’s front and side links with a sliver of marble, leaving only the interior surface in black DLC titanium. Inside is Bulgari’s ultra-thin BVL 268 hand-wound manufacture ultra-thin mechanical movement with flying tourbillon. The full case measures only 1.95 mm thick.

Bulgari notes that the purchaser of the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Only Watch will be offered one night in Bulgari’s newest hotel in Roma as well as lunch or dinner with one person from Bulgari Horlogerie Top management and the visit of the Villa Albani Torlonia to see a collection of marble sculptures.

Estimate: CHF 150,000 – CHF 250,000.

The Watches May 9, 2023

Bulgari Enhances Aluminum Collection

Bulgari adds three new models to its sporty Aluminum series.

The popular Bulgari Aluminum collection was an instant hit when it debuted in 1998. Made of rubber and aluminum, a combination not seen among higher-end Swiss watches previously, the watch was casually sporty and worn by men and women. Bulgari relaunched the collection in 2020, adding automatic movements and updated materials.

The newest additions to the collection include a newly darkened chronograph (with a new caliber), a blue-dialed time and date model and a sporty tennis-themed edition with a left-side crown.

Aluminum Chronograph

Now measuring a slightly larger 41mm in diameter, Bulgari’s Aluminum Chronograph (which won the GPHG Iconic Watch Prize in 2020) is now available in a version sporting an all-black dial, a black rubber bezel and a black rubber and aluminum bracelet.

Powered by a new automatic Caliber B381 (built from an automatic Sellita base with a Dubois-Depraz module), the new watch continues to utilize the aerospace-grade 6028 aluminum alloy and FKM rubber Bulgari incorporated into the impressive redesigned version of 2020, but now also includes a crown, caseback and both chronograph pushers made using black DLC-coated titanium.

Bulgari’s Aluminum Chronograph, off-white dial Panda edition, launches in September

Bulgari also adds the new automatic chronograph movement to the familiar off-white dial Aluminum Chronograph.

While the black-dialed model will be available in June, the newest off-white-dialed ‘Panda’ edition will arrive in September.

Price: $4,640.

Capri Edition

Bulgari adds a limited series to the Aluminum collection meant to celebrate the Italian island of Capri. Two models offer a dial colored in gradient Tyrrhenian blue, a shade reminiscent of Capri’s beachside sea and sky.

This new limited series (of 1,000 watches each) includes a Solotempo model displaying time and date and a chronograph version.

Each watch frames its dial with a blue rubber bezel that matches the rubber strap with aluminum links and aluminum pin buckle.

Bulgari fits the new Aluminum Capri Chronograph with its ETA-based automatic chronograph Caliber B130. The Capri Solotempo model is powered an ETA-based caliber B77 mechanical automatic movement, which also features a date display.

To add novelty, Bulgari has engraved the caseback with the Faraglioni, the three rock formations well known to travelers to the Italian island.

Prices: $3,350 (time and date) and $4,800 (chronograph).

Match Point Edition

This surprising and sporty aluminum model is meant to not only look a bit like a tennis ball, but also to be worn on the court.

Its unusual left-side crown keeps the winder away from the wearer’s flexing wrist during play, and with a smaller (40mm) lightweight aluminum case and an (included) extra Velcro strap (above), more than a few Bulgari Aluminum Match Point Edition watches just might see some net action.

Bulgari accents the watch’s white dial with green luminescent hands and indexes and adds tennis-ball-yellow luminescent seconds hand, markers and dots. Even the packaging of this 800-piece limited edition evokes the look of a tennis ball.

On the caseback Bulgari has engraved — you guessed it — a tennis ball. Inside Bulgari fits its ETA-based automatic B77 caliber with a comfortable 42-hour power reserve.

Price: $3,350, available in July.

Bulgari Launches First Octo Roma Chronograph

Bulgari focuses on its eight-sided Octo Roma collection for early 2023 as it launches the collection’s first chronograph. In addition, look for three new Bulgari Octo Roma Automatic dial options and four Octo Roma Tourbillon watches, each with its own technical twist.

Octo Roma Chronograph

As an early 2023 focus debut, the new Octo Roma Chronograph introduces a new Bulgari movement, Caliber BVL 399, visible through the watch’s clear sapphire back.

Two models are included in the debut, one with a black dial and one in blue. Both feature an eye-catching Clous de Paris, or hobnail, pattern that appears as small pyramids across the dial, here broken only by the three sunburst-pattern chronograph subdials.

Bulgari has been especially careful designing the pushers, which are nicely integrated into the 42mm by 12.4mm steel case. The pushers are only slightly visible, seemingly flowing from the angled lugs directly to the crown protector.

The new Bulgari Octo Roma Chronograph also features a screw-in steel crown with a ceramic insert, is water-resistant to 100 meters and offersSuperLumiNova-filled metallic hands, indexes and numerals.

Bulgari attaches the watch to the wrist with a polished and satin-brushed stainless-steel bracelet with a folding clasp and includes an easily interchangeable rubber strap with each watch.

Price: 9,900 euros.

Octo Roma Automatic

Sporting the same fetching Clous de Paris dial treatment as the new chronograph, the three new automatic models each offer a three-dimensional dial option to the Roma Automatic collection. Differing ambient light levels will subtly alter the character of the dial, though the large 12 and 6 and the long hour markers allow time to be read quickly at any angle. The hands, hour markers and Arabic numerals are enhanced with SuperLumiNova.

Bulgari offers three colors with the new dial pattern: blue, anthracite and white.

This 41mm by 9.1mm steel watch with three hands and date is powered by the existing in-house Caliber BVL 191 movement decorated with Côtes de Genève motif, visible through the clear sapphire back.

Bulgari equips both the Octo Roma Automatic and the Octo Roma Chronograph with a tool-free interchangeable wristband system. Each watch is also water-resistant to a depth of 100 meters.

Price: 7,900 euros.

Four Octo Roma Tourbillon Watches

Two of the Tourbillon models, the Octo Roma Precious Naturalia (165,000 euros) and Precious Tourbillon Lumière (190,000 euros) both feature minerals within their cases or dials.

The Bulgari Octo Roma Precious Naturalia features a slice of tiger’s eye on the caliber and the indexes.

The former includes polished tiger eye on its caliber, mainplate and indexes while then latter glows with diamonds set across a 38mm rose gold case.

The Octo Roma Precious Tourbillon Lumière features a new 38mm case size.

Two Bulgari Octo Roma tourbillon debuts are especially contemporary. One, the 44mm Octo Roma Papillon Tourbillon (130,000 euros) is a black DLC titanium-cased, jumping hour model named in reference to the Daniel Roth precursors of yore. Sporting a very rare central tourbillon, the watch shows the hour through a fixed window at noon, while the minutes are displayed on a semicircle graduated from 0 to 60 and alternately traversed by two diamond-shaped hands.

A sketch of the Bulgari Octo Roma Papillon Tourbillon. Images coming soon.

The second contemporary model is an Octo Roma Striking Tourbillon Sapphire (85,000 euros) that revives an earlier flying tourbillon chiming model, but with a newly refined black DLC titanium and sapphire case. We’ll have more information and images of these two new models in future posts.

The Watches March 14, 2023

Bulgari Debuts Octo Finissimo Tuscan Copper

Bulgari unveils a new Octo Finissimo Automatic with a special copper-hued dial as a North American special edition.

The new watch is the latest in the Octo Finissimo Automatic collection, which Bulgari first introduced in 2017 as its third model in the ongoing, record-breaking Octo Finissimo series of ultra-thin watches.

The new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic Tuscan Copper is a limited edition of fifty pieces for the North American market.

This latest edition gleams with a new sunray-finished dial. Its color is inspired by the paintings of Italian artist Jacopo da Pontormo, an Italian painter from 16^th century Florence.

Bulgari says its dial makers strove to mimic the painter’s soft metallic tone, a color rarely seen on watch dials.

“Here, the particular metallic salmon tone – it is extremely rare in Bulgari watchmaking and has only been used once before – draws its inspiration not from the usual vintage aesthetic prized by collectors, but from the very roots of Italian art, that of the 16th century, and more precisely from a disruptive movement of the time, called Mannerism, which marked my own training as a designer,” explains of Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Product Creation Executive Director at Bulgari Horlogerie.

The new time-only model, the Octo Finissimo Tuscan Copper, is a limited edition of fifty pieces for the North American market, and is powered by Bulgari’s own ultra-thin mechanical self-winding movement, Caliber BVL 138, which boasts a micro-rotor and an impressive 2.23mm thickness measurement.

The thin movement means the entire piece measures only 6.4mm thin. Despite its thin size, the watch still retains a 100-meter water resistance rating.

Price: $13,300. A North American Limited edition of fifty.

Specifications: Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic Tuscan Copper

Movement: Ultra-thin mechanical self-winding Caliber BVL 138 with micro-rotor (2.23mm in thickness); hours, minutes, small seconds counter at 7 o’clock; 60-hour power reserve; frequency 21,600 vph (3 Hz).

Case: 40mm by 6.4mm steel.

Dial: Metallic Tuscan copper sunray-finish dial, rhodium-plated applied indexes; steel screw-down crown with ceramic insert; transparent caseback; water resistant to 100 meters.

Bracelet: Satin-polished stainless-steel bracelet with integrated folding clasp.

Price: $13,300. Available starting in April.

Bulgari Expands Jeweled Collections

During LVMH Watch Week 2023, Bulgari launched new models in its jeweled Divas’ Dream and Allegra collections. In addition, Bulgari has designed new bracelets and added new curves on new models in the snake-themed Serpenti Tubogas and Serpenti Seduttori collections.

The new Bulgari Divas’ Dream Topaz & Tanzanite.

Divas’ Dream and Allegra

Look for new hues in Bulgari’s highly jeweled, dangly Allegra watch collection. New models mix topaz, tanzanite, amethyst, tourmaline, ruby and pink or yellow sapphire.

The new Bulgari Allegra Yellow Sapphires.

The new Bulgari Divas’ Dream Amethyst & Tourmaline.

And within the Divas’ Dream and the two new Divas’ Dream Mosaica models, rose gold or white gold watches are outfitted with quartz or mechanical movements while the Allegra models show the time with a quartz movement.

The Divas’ Dream Mosaica in rose gold. The design of the bracelet’s gemset lugs echoes the dial motifs.

The Divas’ Dream Mosaica with blue sapphires is paired with a bracelet created by Bulgari’s goldsmiths.

The transparent caseback on the Divas’ Deam Mosaica Blue reveals a finely decorated Bulgari self-winding movement.

Prices begin at 32,100 euros, or about $34,000.

Serpenti Tubogas Infinity

A year after Bulgari debuted the smallest round mechanical movement, the Piccolissimo caliber BVL 100, into its Serpenti High Jewelry models, the watchmaker/jeweler introduces Serpenti Tubogas Infinity. Here and for the first time, the famed serpentine shape continues from the watch case all the way to the bracelet.

To make the leap, Bulgari has added gems to the bracelet’s modular construction. Artisans mold each ring on the bracelet separately before then polishing, setting them with gems and assembling them on a titanium blade.

Serpenti Seduttori

Two new Serpenti Seduttori models offer deep black lacquered dials. One addition is cased in steel and another made of steel with a rose gold bezel and central bracelet links..

Here, Bulgari again creates a hexagonal scaglie (scale) bracelet that appears to merge seamlessly into the snakehead case. Both new 33mm models ares set with a quartz movement and a cabochon-cut pink rubellite crown. Prices: 5,400 euros (steel) and 9,400 euros (steel with rose gold bezel).

Only Watch 2023 Favorites: Bulgari

Bulgari Enhances Aluminum Collection

Bulgari Launches First Octo Roma Chronograph

Bulgari Debuts Octo Finissimo Tuscan Copper

Bulgari Expands Jeweled Collections

Chopard Returns to Mille Miglia

Hublot Sponsors Two Teams at Regatta

Alpina Goes on Tour