One thing's for sure: even when it celebrates its birthday, the Octo Finissimo continues to excel, leaving its competitors behind with its new and slender silhouette! Bulgari — renowned for its ability to design, manufacture and assemble its own exceptional mechanical movements — has just set a new record for slenderness in a mechanical watch. Combining Swiss quality with Italian style, the Octo Finissimo Ultra is even thinner than a 20-cent Euro coin, with its 1.80 mm total thickness. This newly crowned timepiece is 0.20 mm thinner than the previous title holder, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept by Piaget, which measured in at 2mm thick.
This new record is Bulgari's 8th such achievement in the same number of years — could it be divine coincidence that it's happened in a collection named Octo, with an eight-sided case? Bulgari's list of achievements is growing with almost metronomic regularity. Starting with manual movement, then followed by automatic, then minute repeater, tourbillon, GMT chronograph, skeletonised tourbillon chronograph and perpetual calendar… the brand has been winning trophies year after year.
On a slimming regimen
The mechanical movement of the Octo Finissimo Ultra measures only 1.5mm thick. This brings it a little closer to the manual winding caliber 1200 of Jean Lassale — a brand that has now disappeared and that produced calibers with a thickness of 1.2mm between 1976 and 1979. To save space, the seconds are displayed directly on the seconds wheel. On the ratchet of each of the 10 Octo Finissimo Ultra watches is engraved a unique QR code, linked to an NFT (a cryptographic token authenticated by blockchain technology). This is connected to an exclusive digital universe which will be unveiled when the first Octo Finissimo Ultra is launched.
Here's wishing the Bulgari Octo a happy 10th anniversary!
This new record comes at the right time to celebrate the a decade of the Octo, relaunched by Bulgari in 2012, with the Octo Finissimo premiering in 2014. Bulgari is marking this first decade with two anniversary-edition Octo Finissimo models, the Octo Finissimo Automatic and the Octo Finissimo GMT Chronograph, featuring the first sketches of its design on their dials. The former set the third Octo record in 2017 and the latter marks the fifth achievement of the collection. Visible on the dial, the sketches were those made at the time by Bulgari's creative director, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani. Each model is limited to 200 pieces and made of sandblasted titanium, the signature material of the collection.
Record-setting thin watches of the Bulgari Octo Finissimo
1. Octo Finissimo Tourbillon (2014, calibre BVL 268, 1.95mm)
2. Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater (2016, calibreBVL 362, 3.12mm)
3. Octo Finissimo Automatic (2017, calibre BVL 138, 2.23mm)
4. Octo Finissimo Automatic Tourbillon (2018, calibre BVL 288, 3.95mm)
5. Octo Finissimo Automatic GMT Chronograph (2019, calibre BVL 318, 3.30mm)
6. Octo Finissimo Automatic Skeleton Tourbillon Chronograph (2020, calibre BVL 388, 3.50mm)
7. Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar (2021, calibre BVL 305, 2.75mm)
8. Octo Finissimo Ultra (2022, calibre BVL 180, 1.50mm movement thickness, 1.80mm total thickness)
