Page 86 - Sharp September 2023

WEARING THIN
BULGARI’S QUEST TO CREATE THE WORLD’S SLIMMEST WATCHES
By Justin Mastine-Frost
IIN THE WORLD OF HIGH-LEVEL, LUXURY WATCHMAKING,
world records are no easy feat. Advancements in manufacturing precision and rapidly developing materials may have kept things interesting over the course of the last couple of decades, but only a handful of the industry’s leaders have remained consistently committed to pushing such boundaries. Pulling ahead, however, is Bulgari — the Italian powerhouse brand with a record-breaking list longer than almost any other.
In recent years, Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo collection has flour- ished. It’s thoughtful, detailed, and distinctly modern in design, drawing in collectors seeking something more than the typical reissues or legacy references of other luxury watchmakers. It’s the go-to brand for those who want something out of the ordinary. That being said, there’s an additional draw where the Octo Finissimo is concerned: the collection contains eight world record-breaking watches all launched within a span of eight years.
Under the leadership of CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, with product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani guiding pens on paper, Bulgari has worked tirelessly to redefine the ultra-thin watchmaking category. Once sewn up by the likes of Piaget and Audemars Piguet, each new piece in the Octo Finissimo family sees world records fall like dominoes, one after the next.
But how does one brand, long renowned for high jewellery rather than watchmaking, conquer an entire category in such a short period? For starters, the wheels of this endeavour were set in motion long before Bulgari’s record-breaking watches were buckled up. The brand’s first true watch collection arrived in 1977, but it contained only simple battery-powered pieces — a far cry from what we see today. The story of today’s incredible pieces truly began in 2000, when Bulgari secured the brands of Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth. It was an acquisition that included not only the rights to each watchmaker’s name but, more importantly, their respective manufacturing facilities in Le Sentier. After these takeovers the brand marched forward, finally able to design, develop, prototype, and eventually fully manufacture their creations.
Rather than taking you through the eight-piece collection one- by-one (a guide you can find at sharpmagazine.com), let’s instead take a moment to consider some of the decisions — concerning both design and engineering — that were made during the development of these special watches. Because, whilst they remain the thinnest of their kind on the market, the Octo Finissimo models conceal many tricks and innovations lacked by other ultra-thin watches.
The first feature to jump out arrived in the second release of the saga — specifically, the striking combination of materials and dial design used to create the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater. By opting for a titanium case, the watch was granted greater acoustic resonance than typical repeaters cased in precious metals. And to further amplify its chiming function, Bulgari cut out its indices on the dial which allowed the chiming to also echo against the watch’s sapphire crystal.
The lynchpin of the collection arrived shortly after, in the form of the Octo Finissimo Automatic. The simplest of the pack — a time-only automatic that would become the centre of the brand’s core collection — found its biggest selling point was its slender bracelet. In the creation of this bracelet, Bulgari was presented with a challenge: how do you secure a strap on a watch that is only 5.15 mm thick? Clasps take up space, and to have a bracelet thicker than the watch would have been unacceptable. Other, lesser watchmakers may have turned to leather, but Bulgari’s Buonamassa Stigliani got creative with titanium instead. By hiding a series of notches in the bracelet’s links, he devised a butterfly clasp that remains neatly, and very nearly completely, hidden.
A final bit of watchmaking magic worth a mention was fitted to the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Chronograph Skeleton Automatic from 2020 — the sixth watch of the set. Gunning for the record of “thinnest tourbillon chronograph watch in the market,” the brand pulled out every stop for this one to achieve the remarkable. To look at it, you’d assume the watch had a standard chronograph configuration, based on the pushers at two and four o’clock, but you’d be wrong. For, as an added space saver, the brand removed the typical gearing used for time setting and instead developed a switching mechanism to toggle between winding and setting functions. The lower pusher acts as this switch and the upper controls all chronograph functions. It’s another ingenious flourish, and one that makes an even more convincing argument that Bulgari, and its talent for record-breaking watchmaking, is setting the industry pace for innovation.
WATCH
86 SEPTEMBER 2023
SHARPMAGAZINE.COM