It feels like Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo has claimed more world records over the past five years than all other Swiss watches combined.
The super slim watch collection has set seven world records and was already the thinnest timepiece ever made.
But its latest iteration, the Octo Finissimo Ultra, has been unveiled at just 1.8mm thick, and that is for the watch, not just the movement.
It claims an eighth world record that may never be broken.
In practice, the watch is almost entirely its movement, with dials, barrel, balance wheel, bridges and gears all on one entirely exposed plane.
Bulgari says the watch required the team to forget the classic constraints of design and architecture.
“The challenge of this eighth record was the most difficult to overcome, since we had to break the rules not only in terms of movement design, but also of the case, the caseback, the bracelet and the folding clasp. To achieve this degree of thinness, you not only have to review your way of thinking, but you must also draw upon a wide range of skills, play with multiple materials and adapt to a multitude of new constraints. In this sense, the Octo Finissimo Ultra is unquestionably the ultimate complication in this vast field of possibilities represented by ultra-miniaturisation,” says Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari’s product creation executive director.
Although the design is radical, the Ultra is immediately recognisable as a sibling of the Octo Finissimo family.
Sandblasted titanium has been used before, and its 40mm octagonal tiered case is iconic to the range.
Placement of a wheel showing seconds at 6 o’clock on the dial has also been done before.
Hours and minutes are displayed on separate subdials at 2 and 4 o’clock. Perhaps, stacking the hands on a single dial would have added too much height.
The largest piece of real estate on the face is the barrel, which stores power for 50 hours, and has a manhole-like cover engraved with a QR code.
That code is linked to an online presentation on the watch.
Each of the ten Ultras is sold with an NFT artwork which, thanks to blockchain technology, guarantees the authenticity and uniqueness of the watch.
