Bulgari’s new mechanical watch is thinner than a one-peso coin
The story of the 1.8mm-thick Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra comes in eights. After seven consecutive world records and more than 60 international awards, Octo Finissimo pushes the limits of feasibility by scooping up for Bulgari its eighth world record as the thinnest mechanical watch ever made — thinner than a Philippine peso coin at 2.05mm. Don’t let its size deceive you; crafted in sandblasted titanium, it is light as it is strong.
The watch encompasses no less than eight patents: the assembly of the watch glass, its bracelet, its barrel structure, its oscillator module, differential display, modular structure, bimetal case middle-mainplate-caseback, and software.
The eight-sided case that is the design code for the Octo is inspired by the geometry of the Pantheon’s eight arches, in a coming together of peak Swiss watchmaking innovation with the quintessence of Italian design. (Did you know that Bulgari is the first Italian company to have won the prestigious “Aiguille d'Or,” the Best in Show award of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2021?)
Eight when turned sideways outlines the shape of infinity — which is what’s to come from the Octo collection, now on its 10th anniversary.
Zooming in on an Octo, you see that each side is a 45-degree angle, coming from a portion of a square — a square just like a QR code. That’s what is engraved on the ratchet wheel of the barrel of each of the 10 limited editions.
In an age where a watch isn’t essential to telling time and a new realm of the digital world (“the metaverse”) is poised to be as valuable as the tangible, Octo Finissimo Ultra was designed in an unprecedented collaboration with the constructors, the watchmakers and the studio — from start to finish — as a gateway into an entire global ecosystem which Bulgari has filled with an ever-evolving selection of experiences. The watch even comes with a unique NFT art piece.
Eight years since the Octo Finissimo collection was first released, the Octo Finissimo Ultra came to be today because of three flagship timepieces, reinterpreted for this achievement.
In 2016, the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater was the thinnest chiming watch on the market. Today, Bulgari revisits it in sandblasted titanium with a matte blue open-worked dial and structured rubber strap.
The new Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic is an all-steel reinterpretation of the famous GMT automatic chronograph launched in 2019 with a world thinness record at just 3.3 mm, making it the thinnest mechanical chronograph ever made.
In 2020, Bulgari clinched its sixth consecutive world record achieved by the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Chronograph Skeleton Automatic. Its self-winding skeleton movement with a monopusher chronograph and tourbillon functions is housed within a thickness of only 3.5 mm, now in platinum with a matching alligator leather strap.
Bulgari also releases 200-piece limited anniversary editions of the Octo Finissimo Automatic and the Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic in monochrome ultralight titanium bearing pencil sketches on the dial.
It’s the original sketch for the Octo Finissimo, laser-engraved onto the dial, as if it had been drawn on by Bulgari’s product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani himself. A humorous, ironic homage to some of the world’s breakthrough technology, it’s a reminder that time is always in our hands.
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In the Philippines, Bulgari is in the new Greenbelt 3, Esperanza Street, Makati and The Shoppes at Solaire, Aseana Avenue, Paranaque.
