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The Roman Empire’s charm and magnificence are the sources of inspiration for the design of the Bulgari Octo‘s, whose models epitomize architectural traits from the past while boasting the Swiss watchmaking excellence.
Here is the story of a record-breaking collection winning countless awards and breaking the rules of luxury sports watchmaking.
A new collection for the ultimate watch connoisseur
Chronologically speaking, the Octo resulted from ingenuity, the joint project involving a talented designer and a management team that turned a visionary concept into reality.
When the Bulgari Octo was unveiled, it was clear that the Maison aimed at creating a new watch icon. Bulgari began building its fully integrated manufacturing facilities years before and desired to make a statement in the industry by launching a product that competes against the most sought-after luxury sports’ watches.
The continuous development that the Bulgari Octo has undergone so far has been impressive, and it is proof that the collection has been considerably successful since its beginning. Also, the range’s extension proves that the original product has hit the nail on the head.
If I were asked to summarize Octo‘s success from an aesthetic point of view, I would answer that Bulgari introduced a case with an original style, squared and with plenty of sharp edges and circles intersecting each other. It is quite an original take, but, at the same time, it is not disruptive either; yet it is instantly recognizable as a Bulgari watch.
The Maison, however, hasn’t simply created a trendsetter; from day one, Bulgari has equipped Octo with premium technical specifications to attract watch-lovers, thus allowing this timepiece to quickly rise at the top of the list that includes the most desired and technically equipped watches in the world.
From Octo to Octo Finissimo: a new vision for Bulgari
The Octo definitely stepped up with the launch of the Octo Finissimo. The technical effort behind the project was extraordinary, and we have kept talking about it often while looking for potential competitors capable of offering the ultra-flat timepiece formula and such a bracelet.
A few years ago, when the Octo first appeared, it was a rule-breaker. Bulgari gambled while joining this class of products as a game-changer, not any follower.
I can’t forget my first visit to the boutique in Via Montenapoleone and what I felt while holding the tight and wide mesh bracelet.
Yet Bulgari kept developing that concept – a great example of product design – and turned it into something even more refined and unconventional than ever before. It now stands as a breakthrough inside and out.
Bulgari‘s vision was to grow its reputation as an Haute-Horlogerie brand, especially among luxury sports watches manufacturers, where the competition is fierce, and most customers are loyal to Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Patek.
In keeping with the ultra-thin to ultra-light watch template, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo comes in titanium alloy – a choice that combines innovation much better than steel. The outcome is that wearing an Octo Finissimo feels like wearing a linen shirt or a pair of tailored-made loafers.
Rhodium-plated steel Octo Finissimo and the pink rose Octo Finissimo.
The Steel Bulgari Octo Finissimo: a bit heavier, same product feel.
When you can engineer the thinnest ultra-thin watch ever, you are ready to accept some unexpected but reasonable ‘luxury’ feel to it by adding some more weight.
Conversely, since it is an ultra-flat watch, it would never sport the same weight as a titanium watch if you had to craft it in steel.
The steel version preserves all those features we love about the Titanium Octo Finissimo, like the subtle sandblasted finish and the incredible comfort, making a Finissimo so understated. The stainless-steel Octo Finissimo is a great option to the Titanium Finissimo and a contender to most luxury steel watches.
Rose Gold Octo Finissimo
Full Gold case and bracelet are trendy, once again. It was widely accepted in the United States than in Europe before. In contrast, the average Italian customer usually opts for steel.
If we had to rate how popular Full Gold is in Italy, we could still see that white gold outperforms yellow and pink gold. As with steel – which is not just steel but comes with a thin layer of palladium and rhodium treated gold – crafting an Octo Finissimo in gold has some pros; the watch has a gold appeal, but not its weight, and the sandblasted finish makes the timepiece more sophisticated than anywhere else.
Bulgari‘s aim with its three versions of the Octo Finissimo (Titanium, steel, gold) is, in my opinion, to position this timepiece as a high-end product, but, at the same time, as an understated and technological product too, thanks to the sandblasted finish.
Why steel, why pink rose and what is still missing to further enhance the touch and feel of the Finissimo
We have extensively talked about sandblasted finish; let’s then move the steel version – it has all the pros of the Titanium version. The Titanium version is exceptionally light, and this “dilutes” the perception of luxury items within the over €10,000 price range.
The Finissimo‘s steel is matte yet brighter than Titanium. It helps attract traditional buyers. Also, the steel version is lighter than any full-steel sibling; it features an ultra-flat calibre, and it retails at €12,900 compared to the €13,500 you’ll pay to get your hands on a Finissimo Titanium.
I would not be surprised to see this option overshadowing Titanium‘s success. The pink gold version offers a rare combination and, at 44.900€, it clearly is a flagship product.
As far as the Finissimo Titanium is concerned, some people saw that Bulgari also introduced a Titanium option with blue indexes, mimicking the awesome 50-piece Octo Finissimo crafted to celebrate the brand’s flagship boutique in New York.
The complex CNC-machined case and its bracelet are top-notch but somehow feel too industrial from an enthusiast’s perspective. Adding more decorative, hand-made touches might help a Finissimo stand out.
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic, released at Baselworld 2017, is a masterpiece of design and engineering. It features every single feat making the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon and the Bulgari Octo Minute Repeater outstanding at a fraction of their price list.
These timepieces are leaders in their respective high-range segments, with a calibre that, on the Finissimo Automatic, beats hands down the Piaget Altiplano. Piaget is the master of all things ultra-thin.
As long as mechanical complications are concerned, let me highlight that crafting an automatic calibre measuring only 2,23mm in thickness equals engineering a complicated watch. It can only be achieved by massively investing in research and development to finally become a market leader.
The Design
To achieve this result, Bulgari‘s designers have adopted a winding micro-rotor, which comes in platinum (due to technical reasons, hence the moment of inertia) while including Côtes de Généve decoration on relatively thin bridges along with a “perlage” pattern, on the main plate.
The BVL138 calibre‘s power reserve of up to 60 hours, when fully wound, is a remarkable result. This feature perfectly pairs with Bulgari‘s long-established expertise in crafting integrated bracelets.
An Octo bracelet’s distinctive design
The Bulgari Octo debuted a mesh wrapping the wrist so smoothly to push the boundaries of the integration between case and bracelet. The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic measures 40mm across, but it looks as if it were 45mm side to side, given its squared shape.
Do not undervalue how challenging is to craft such a bracelet; wearers want it to be as functional as comfortable, meaning it should never pinch your skin. It also needs to be appealing.
Is this proof of Bulgari‘s prowess as a watchmaker? The watch, made of Titanium to provide the user with an unparalleled experience, features a bracelet that can be fully stretched out and collapses against the case back. Here is where all the brand’s expertise in making jewellery pieces comes out.
The Octo Finissimo Automatic price list
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic retails for 13.500 euro (12.500 on a leather strap). It is a Bulgari watch, and we could easily affirm: “it is expensive by default “.
The truth is that Bulgari worked hard to make an Haute-Horlogerie piece, and they ended up creating their first-ever ultra-thin timepiece.
The strength of this timepiece lies in the unique synthesis of two seemingly contrasting ideas; on one side is the refined style of a design object, and, from a functional point of view, it also features the best mechanism one could ever dream of. Whether you are a fan of a Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic or not, this result is quite unquestionable.
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic
The 2019 Baselworld edition will be long remembered not as the most exciting one so far, but as a changeover between old and new formula, according to an official press release from the fair’s executive management.
Nonetheless, Bulgari has once again shocked the industry by breaking another record in watchmaking, thus placing itself as a leading brand in innovation, in a scenario where most peers are short on ideas and new products.
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic is the fifth record in a row the brand has set with its Octo Finissimo. Babin, Terreni, and Buonamassa are the dream team behind a record-breaking collection of watches, whose main pillars are a remarkably slim case, superior comfort, unmistakable style.
The new Octo Chronograph adds another chapter to a product lineup, including the Octo Finissimo Automatic (in Titanium, steel or rose gold), a flying tourbillon, and a skeleton tourbillon and a minute repeater.
A new ceramic made Octo Finissimo joined the collection, too, in 2019.
Why Bulgari adopted the GMT function on the Octo
With the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic, Bulgari aims at bridging the gap between entry-level and high-end Finissimo watches, in our opinion, thus offering a new take on the Octo watch.
Bulgari‘s designers have packed an integrated column-wheel chronograph into a 3,30mm mechanical movement, the calibre BVL 318, capable of running for 55 hours when fully wound and allowing the case thickness to stop at just 6,90mm, making this new Octo the world’s thinnest GMT chronograph.
The idea to include a GMT function was a clever one: it makes the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic a globetrotter-ready piece; a button located at nine o’clock allows to change the hour hand quickly if you’re travelling east. It is simple and easy to operate.
A Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT is a perfect combination of design and engineering.
The design of this and the two Chrono push-buttons is pretty refined and, if we exclude the three register dial’s layout, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic reminds a three-hands Finissimo Automatic at first sight. The squared, CNC-machined shape makes the three buttons look stylistically integrated and virtually hidden.
Much attention to detail went into engineering the mechanical movement, aiming to provide performance and pleasing aesthetics. Engineers opted for a peripheral winding rotor to guarantee a thickness of just 3.30mm, the most sophisticated technical solution for automatic watches. Although driven by functional requirements, it has the advantage of making an automatic watch look like a hand-wound one.
A luxury sports watch
Moreover, as I highlighted in the previous posts regarding my personal experience with a Finissimo, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic confirms how lovely it is to wrap an Octo around the wrist. It indeed is the most comfortable sports luxury watch out there, a timepiece that’ll never pinch your wrist and something you hardly perceive once worn. Also, it makes all the other classic sports watches in the benchmark look as they all belong to the Stone Age.
Graceful, mechanically refined, and versatile, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic is close to perfection, yet it still lacks that touch of premium “look and feel” that you always expect in the luxury segment.
It has a unique sporty appearance and excellent build quality, and a design that seems to be drawing inspiration from the concept cars conceived by Italian designer Marcello Gandini. Take a look at an Alfa Romeo 33 Carabo, for example; however, my suggestion is to keep improving a few details like bridges and gears decoration; its avant-garde and seventies looking pedigree is unmistakable yet still a bit aseptic at times.
Bulgari Octo finissimo perpetual calendar
The Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar is the seventh chapter and yet another record-breaking timepiece belonging to the Octo Finissimo‘s product portfolio, five of them being ultra-complicated options. The perpetual calendar was eagerly awaited, a proposition that I envisioned while discovering the Chrono GMT, and nonetheless, it’s a timepiece closing the gap between the chronograph and the top of the line. Also, it reaffirms the brand’s vision to make the thinnest self-winding wristwatch whatever the mechanical complication under development.
Again, from a market’s perspective, the perpetual calendar complication is a development you won’t miss in any luxury sports watch offering. The perpetual calendar places itself amidst the range and aims at making the premium Octos more accessible. Also, the market demand proves this kind of complication is growing among watch connoisseurs’ buying options.
The materials
It comes in Grade 5 titanium and measures a hard-to-believe 5.80 mm in thickness, thanks to the outrageously slim 2.75 mm-thick BVL 305 calibre, but that’s more. The case houses an incredibly 0,3 mm thick dial with an ultra-slim and squared design. Not to mention that the 2021 Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar not only prides itself on being the thinnest perpetual calendar in the business, I’m pretty confident it also is the lightest in the benchmark.
Bulgari has also introduced an Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar in platinum with a blue dial if you’re looking for something more luxurious. On both models, the BVL 305 ensures a 60-hour power reserve.
The design
The Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar‘s overall design is something I didn’t expect; I was expecting a perpetual-calendar variant of the GMT Chronograph from a design standpoint.
Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari‘s Creative Director for Watches, opted for a hard-to-predict style with the various registers offering different sizes top to bottom: the big retrograde days of the month’s gauge is spot on, with the day of the week and the month counter being smaller in size and placed on the left hand and right-hand side respectively.
Last but not least, you’ll find a tiny leap year’s register at six o’clock. I see various inspirations involving Bulgari heritage in watchmaking and automotive design cues, an industry Fabrizio is familiar with. At noon, the retrograde gauge has a Gerald Genta touch and a kind of Arena Bi-Retro Sport feel, but it recalls a dashboard’s gauge instrument panel as found on some vintage sports cars, too.
The asymmetrical design is perhaps a consequence of the Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar missing a moon-phase complication you’ll find on most classic propositions out there.
I reckon the Finissimo is inherently different from the competition. The moon phase complication seems to clash with the signature avant-gardist, ultra-technical, and no-frills pedigree of any Octo Finissimo.
The claim “the aesthetics of mechanics” and the Finissimo logo drawing inspiration from automotive design (Pininfarina, above all) proves the Finissimo‘s territory is more stand-out performance as enhanced on the Finissimo S product variants.
An excellent year for the Octo Bulgari
The Perpetual Calendar is the highlight, not the only new Finissimo 2021 revealed at Watches and Wonders. After introducing the highly-collectable Tadao Ando Finissimo in Titanium (alongside a tourbillon, too), Bulgari doubles by introducing a new take on the Finissimo. It was designed in collaboration with the Japanese architect and the outcome is a new Octo Finissimo in ceramic. Its dial is introducing the Japanese concept of Mikazuki, hence the crescent moon. If the first edition was all about the spiral of time, the coming one has a different meaning.
As a 160-piece edition, let’s expect the second edition to become as highly sought-after as the original one.
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon, the thinnest Tourbillon watch ever
After Piaget regained its leadership as the maker of the world’s thinnest automatic watch over Bulgari, the LVMH owned Italian brand still holds that of the thinnest automatic tourbillon watch’s maker.
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic is the fourth watch in a series of ultra-thin watches designed by Bulgari and based on the Octo Finissimo: the 2014 Octo Finissimo Tourbillon, the 2016 Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater, and the 2017 Octo Finissimo Automatic replaced at the beginning of 2018 by the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Automatic 910P, as thinnest automatic watch in the world.
Based on the Finissimo Automatic Tourbillon‘s calibre launched in 2014, the BVL 288 unveiled in 2018 features a peripheral oscillating mass. It is made of gold and aluminium to guarantee exceptional winding smoothness.
Gold, with its density, ensures the mass inertia is more than enough to wind the movement up to 52 hours of maximum power reserve. It is an excellent result considering the size of the movement, which is just 1.95mm thick and incorporates a flying tourbillon too.
The entirely open-worked skeleton movement is encased into the 42mm wide full sandblasted titanium Octo Finissimo’s case.
The choice of a peripheral winding mass is mandatory to reduce the overall dimensions as much as possible and, moreover, makes the calibre look and feel like a hand-wound mechanical movement.
Octo Finissimo Tuscan Copper and Yellow Gold unveiled at the LVMH Watch Week 2024
The Octo undergoes continuous development and technical improvement, too. At the 2024 LVMH Watch Week, Bulgari unveiled two new Octo Finissimo models, one in steel and the other in yellow gold. Yet, if you scratch the surface, you’ll discover much more than you can see on the outside.
The Octo Finissimo Tuscan Copper
Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani drew inspiration from Italian sixteen-century Mannerism. The outcome is a tone closer to copper than salmon, despite the sunray metallic finish making it more salmon, as Bulgari itself officially states on the official website.
With a 100-meter water resistance, the steel Octo wears thicker at 6.30 mm than the original 5.15 mm, a negligible gap to such an outstandingly thin watch.
The most intriguing technical (yet aesthetic) takeout is the 904L steel case and bracelet. It places the Octo alongside other premium brands, like Rolex, and smaller ones, like Ball Watch or micro ones like Pompeak Watches.
The 904L is, according to its specs, superior to any 316L. It is more resistant to corrosion and pitting phenomena and showcases a whiter tone, highlighted by the glossy and brushed finish. The Octo Finissimo Tuscan Copper first appeared as a limited series of 50 pieces to commemorate the first-ever US Bulgari boutique anniversary. It comes now as a standard model and retails for €15,000.
The Octo Finissimo Yellow Gold
Since its launch, Bulgari has achieved a long tradition of Octo Finissimo gold models. The yellow gold with a blue lacquered dial adds a stunning new option conceived as an all-rounder thanks to the 100-meter water resistance.
It’s not the first-ever Octo in yellow gold. Bulgari originally crafted a yellow gold model in 2022 to celebrate the first Bulgari boutique’s fiftieth anniversary in the US.
The case featured a dark brown dial, paired to rose gold, but the new combination with a blue lacquered dial and a sunray finish is a winner. We’d love to see a matching yellow-gold micro-rotor.
However, platinum and its specific weight are necessary to maximise the winding efficiency; the current choice is mandatory. The New Bulgari Octo Finissimo Yellow Gold retails for €49,200.
Octo Finissimo Automatic Sketch
Two thousand twenty-four marks Bulgari’s 140th Anniversary. Therefore, the brand’s watchmaking division pays homage to such a historic milestone by introducing three special limited edition Octo Finissimo. Unlike other watchmaking brands, Bulgari has since adopted an original approach to limited or special series when celebrating a special event or a partnership.
The Swiss-owned Italian brand speaks volumes with a new Sketch-dial series whose first release was very successful. It came with a titanium architecture on the three-hands and chronograph options back then. To celebrate the Anniversary, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani took the Sketch concept to new heights by turning the mechanical movement into a new sketch.
The Octo Finissimo Automatic Sketch
The three-hander now comes in steel; what comes as a sketch is the now-legendary ultra-flat automatic movement.
Imagine flipping the movement by 180 degrees and replacing the dial. The sketch’s artistic touch resounds in the reproduction of the Côtes de Genève, and several pop-ups indicate the main parts of the BVL 138 movement. The whole dial is lacquered.
Flip the case on its back, and you’ll see the “LIMITED EDITION” and “1884-2024” inscriptions on the see-through glass. Two limited edition models are available: one in steel and the other in rose gold. The first comes in 280 pieces, the second in 70 pieces, for the world.
The Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Sketch
Bulgari adopted the same concept for its signature chronograph GMT, yet with some differences due to the watch’s functions. Since it is a chronograph, the “sketch” mixes up the self-winding movement design. It is topped by the three chronograph counters hovering over the base design to ensure the chrono functions.
The dial here has a sandblasted finish and is not exclusively aesthetic but fully functional.
(Photo credit: Horbiter®, Bulgari)
Tommaso Sabia @Horbiter®
