Bulgari seems to be taking thinness as a serious matter when it comes to creating record-breaking and industry-shaking timepieces. In the last couple of years, it’s already earned titles for the thinnest tourbillon movement, thinnest minute repeater, and thinnest automatic watch. At Baselworld held earlier this year, the brand apparently didn’t want to break its momentum as it officially presented the thinnest automatic tourbillon watch: the new Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic.
RELEASE DATE & PRICE
Release Date: January 2018
Price when reviewed: US$118,000.00
The Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic now holds three titles in the watchmaking industry for the thinnest automatic watch, thinnest automatic tourbillon, and thinnest tourbillon. In what is a seemingly decorous competition between Bulgari and Piaget, the watch puts the brand ahead of the latter as it cops one of the titles from an earlier Piaget watch.
Its movement uses the same features as the 1.95mm-thick one on Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo from 2014, which won its own titles then. It also borrows much of the same construction and design elements from the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Hand-Wound, which was launched in 2015, only it now involves a self-winding or automatic mechanism.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Diameter: 42mm
- Height: 3.95mm
- Movement: BVL 288
- Water Resistance: 30 meters
- Power Reserve: 55 hours
- Features: Peripheral oscillating weight at the back of the movement, flying tourbillon with ball-bearing system
PROS
It would take something very impressive to take the titles it holds away from the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic, which also means that it took some rare expertise to create the existing model in the first place.
While the professional mechanical watchmaking methods focus on creating and expanding on the biggest watches with the grandest features, this watch makes noise in the industry and beyond through its thinness that is very enticing to people who look to everyday watches more than those with extra sporty functions. The watch is finished with a sandblasted titanium case that matches the bracelet, which renders it appropriate for office use.
Even with the traditional appearance, it’s still not without something fascinating design-wise because the entirely-skeletonized dial showcases the movement underneath that powers the whole thing.
CONS
If only based on the appearance, we’d bet there are millions who’d opt for this watch more than most casual-looking models in the market. However, the value of a watch that holds three records is exceptionally high, as one would expect. That immediately removes it from people’s list of options, and most have no choice because Bulgari is keen on creating only 50 of them.
Images credit: Monochrome Watches
