It's hard to remember today, with the Octo dominating the brand's and a whole segment of the watchmaking conversation, that Bulgari once did very different watches. One in particular stood out. It was an offshoot of the Diagono collection, and it was dedicated to travel, sports and a certain type of assertion. It was called the Diagono X-Pro GMT Chronograph, X-Pro in short, and it really was something.
You have to put yourself back in the 2010 mood. Large, bold watches were still all the rage, so the X-Pro fit right in. It was 45 mm wide, and overflowing with details. Skeletonized hands, all seven of them. Lume all over. Wide tubular lugs with visible screws typical of the Diagono line. They also happened to be mobile as they were mounted on small springs, in order to fit a larger selection of wrists. Big pushers, big crown, big two-tone bezel with 24h markings, big twelve. As a whole, the case included a total of 104 components, some in steel, others in titanium, the rest in DLC steel. It was a lot of a watch.
The movement was a Valjoux base modified by La Joux-Perret. They morphed the ubiquitous run-of-the-mill cam chronograph into a column wheel one. They also added a second timezone, to be read with the longest hand, the black one with the sharpest tip. It pointed to a 24-hour scale on the flange and also to the bezel, a feature that allowed the X-Pro to be a triple timezone timepiece. They went as far as making it a COSC-certified chronometer. On top of that, Bulgari added their own rotor.
Compared to the lean, slim Bulgaris for men released over the past five years, this X-Pro feels like a aberration. It was so short lived it probably indeed was one. But you have to admit that Bulgari tried a lot of things back then. Too much, agreed, but they tried. They pushed their existing designs and forayed into hardcore sportivity.
The thing though, is that this big hunk of a watch wore really easy. It felt right, somehow. The mobile lugs did help, but it also projected an unusual manly vibe, more chic than the beasts of that decade, probably because it was after all a Bulgari. Just take a closer look at the satin finish and polishing on the case. Those details say a lot about the way the brand looked at watchmaking : in a much more serious way they were given credit for.
