It's A Woman's World

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It's A Woman's World - Bulgari
2 minutes read
A beguiling path to the world of fine watchmaking as defined by the new Bulgari Serpenti Seddutori Tourbillon.

Lots of people used to think that Bulgari wasn’t a serious watch brand. They were profoundly wrong, of course. Even before the rise of the Octo behemoth (as detailed in our analysis by Olivier Müller), Bulgari had some big guns in their horological arsenal. Does the Bulgari Daniel Roth Ellipsocurvex Carillon Tourbillon ring a bell? It should, because it was one of the best-sounding repeaters made this century. The Magsonic Grande et Petite Sonnerie with Westminster Carillon sound familiar? How about the Ammiraglio del Tempo, with its innovative chime activation lever, detent escapement and cathedral gongs? The chiming automata watches such as Il Giocatore Veneziano or Commedia dell’Arte? 

Fact is, there is zero excuse for not recognising the immense technical prowess of Bulgari. There hasn’t been one for a long time. 

The issue wasn’t that Bulgari were bad at making fine watches (clearly). It was that they were fabulous at making fine jewellery, and they had been doing it far longer than watches. This is why Bulgari, despite their undeniable strengths in various departments, are still primarily recognised for their female-targeted products. 

They put this recognition and this expertise to good use, as we know. The Bulgari Diva’s Dream Finissima Minute Repeater from 2018 had an astounding level of technical watchmaking, smashing assumptions about complicated feminine watchmaking. 

This year, Bulgari decided to make the bold move of creating a completely new movement, highly sophisticated in form and function, for a feminine timepiece. The icon of Bulgari, the sinuous, sensuous Serpenti, has adorned wrists in several forms — ranging from highly-jewelled confections with enamelled scales and hidden dials to the pared-down daily-wear timepiece with flexible Tubogas bracelet. Now it also comes laden with haute horlogerie, setting a new record for the smallest feminine tourbillon watch today.

It's A Woman's World

Scintillating design, formidable technique

The new Bulgari Serpenti Seddutori Tourbillon didn’t come out of nowhere. It is built on the expertise of ultra-thin, ultra-compact watchmaking as honed in the Octo Finissimo series. It rests on the heritage of gemstones and gem-setting that has defined Bulgari’s most famous creations. It is rooted in the inimitable design style that sets Bulgari apart from every other luxury house in the world. 

That is to say — only Bulgari could have made this watch.

It's A Woman's World

Inhabiting the Bulgari Serpenti Seddutori Tourbillon is the new manual-winding cal. BVL150 with 40 hours of power reserve. Upping the level of prestige significantly, the cal. BVL150 is a form movement, which is universally perceived as more exclusive as compared to the more familiar round movements (which are designed for maximum versatility across a large number of timepieces). The rotating escapement at the 6 o’clock position appears to be a flying tourbillon, but is actually anchored by a sapphire crystal bridge, allowing the Serpenti Seddutori Tourbillon to exult in its highly visible mechanical heart whilst remaining adamantine-tough in terms of chronometric performance.

It's A Woman's World

The serpent is a powerful symbol rife with cultural weight and associations, from the fateful agent of temptation in Judeo-Christian tradition, to the Mesoamerican deity Quetzacoatl, the semidivine Asian naga, Jörmungandr of Norse legend and the Greek ouroboros. Unlike the self-terminating ouroboros, however, the Bulgari Serpenti is coiled but free — instead of looking back towards its tail, it looks forward, to a future of strong feminine watchmaking.

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