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 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 caliber launched in 2014, Caliber BVL 288 Finissimo unveiled in 2018 by Bulgari features a peripheral oscillating mass made of gold and aluminum, which according to Bulgari guarantees an exceptional winding smoothness. Gold, instead, with its density, guarantees the mass inertia is more than enough to wind the movement up to 52 hours of maximum power reserve, an excellent result considering the size of the movement, which is just 1.95mm thick and incorporates a flying tourbillon too. The entirely openworked skeleton movement is encased into the unmistakable 42mm wide full sandblasted titanium Octo Finissimo‘s case. The choice of a peripheral winding mass is mandatory in order to reduce the overall dimensions as much as possible, and, moreover, makes the caliber look and feel like a hand-wound mechanical movement. Will it be beaten once again by Piaget at the upcoming SIHH 2019? We will soon find out.
(Photo credit: Horbiter®’s proprietary photo-shooting by Peter Tung)
Gaetano C @Horbiter®
