Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon

This year’s limited edition of the Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon from Parmigiani Fleurier appears clad in 950 platinum. The elegant Milano blue dial is framed by the line’s signature knurled bezel, also made of platinum. The dial has delta-shaped skeletonized hands and applied markers, celebrating contemporary minimalism. The eye-catching feature is the flying tourbillon, which completes one revolution per minute between 6 and 7 o’clock.

Inside the 42-mm case, which measures just 8.6 mm in height, beats the automatic manufacture caliber PF517. It is wound by a 950 platinum micro-rotor decorated with a fine barleycorn guilloché pattern. Other exquisite finishes, such as circular Geneva Waves, perlage and angled bridges, can be admired through the sapphire crystal case back. Thanks to a screw-down crown, this haute-horlogerie watch, which is limited to 25 pieces, is water resistant to 100 meters. Pricing is available upon request.

To learn more, visit Parmigiani Fleurier, here.

Hublot MP-13 Tourbillon BI-Axis BI-Retrograde

The somewhat long name already hints at the technical complexity of the Hublot MP-13 Tourbillon BI-Axis BI-Retrograde. This exceptional timepiece combines a double-axis tourbillon with two retrograde displays for the hour and minute. This symphony of mechanics is orchestrated by the manufacture caliber HUB6200 with manual winding, which offers a power autonomy of a full four days and consists of a total of 374 components. Some of the intricately decorated parts are revealed through the open-worked dial.

Yet, the flying double-axis tourbillon, positioned at 6 o’clock, is the undisputed star of the dial. On one axis, it completes one full rotation per minute, on the other every 30 seconds. To make this precise performance visible from all sides, the bezel is extended downwards.

The Hublot MP-13 Tourbillon BI-Axis BI-Retrograde is housed in a 44-mm titanium case and is limited to 50 pieces. Pricing is marked at $158,000.

To learn more, visit Hublot, here.

Bulgari Octo Roma Striking Papillon Tourbillon

This new interpretation of the Bulgari Octo Roma Papillon Tourbillon is rightly named “Striking”, as it stages the exceptionally creative form of time display. The hour is jumping and the minutes, arranged on a semicircle, are alternately indexed by two diamond-shaped hands in “Papillon” style, with new sophistication. It also offers fascinating insights into its mechanical inner workings through the partly skeletonized dial.

The characteristic Octo case in black-coated titanium is closed with a sapphire crystal that enhances the dial. As such, the dial illuminates via indications that are coated in vibrant green Superluminova. The same applies to some components of the genuine hand-wound movement, the BVL348 caliber, which provides a 60-hour power reserve.

It goes without saying that this beauty is visible through the sapphire crystal caseback of the 44 mm case. The highlight of the sporty and modern Octo Roma Striking Papillon Tourbillon is the flying tourbillon, which sits in the center of the dial.

Pricing is marked at approximately $140,000 when converted to USD.

To learn more, visit Bulgari, here.

A snake on the wrist is better than two in the bush – especially if it’s made of precious materials, tells the time and comes from the house of Bulgari. The flexible Serpenti watch coils around the wearer’s wrist just like a real snake. The rounded triangular shape at one end is both the watch case and the head of the reptile.

Bulgari: The Serpenti Spiga Ceramic combines black ceramic, rose gold and diamonds. Quartz movement. $12,400.

Bulgari introduced the first Serpenti watches in the 1940s. Dangerous creatures have long fascinated watch designers. Cartier has a tradition of featuring predators – the panther has occupied a fixed place in the repertoire of this famous Parisian watch and jewelry house since 1914.

A wildcat made of precious metal can threaten the bank account of anyone who intends to buy one – and a panther would not be such a thrilling watchmate if its elegance were not paired with the ferocity of the predator’s face. The Révélation, a panther watch from Cartier, artfully reveals its charms thanks to a spectacular hourglass feature. Moving the dial causes tiny gold beads to fall from top to bottom to slowly form the panther’s face, and gradually have it vanish again.

Cartier: The Révélation contains tiny gold beads that come together to form a panther’s face. Rose gold with diamonds. Hand-wound Caliber 430 MC. $112,000.

Another wild feline inspired the imagination of the designers at Jaquet Droz. A delicate miniature portrait of a lion’s face is painted on the enamel dial of the Petite Heure Minute Lion in exquisite detail, within the tiniest space. Jaquet Droz celebrates the talents of fine crafts-men who make each one of the 28 pieces a unique specimen.

Jaquet Droz: The Petite Heure Minute Lion in rose gold features a painted lion gazing out from the dial. Automatic movement 2653.P. $32,200.

The wolf on the dial of the ArtyA Wolf Tourbillon 1/1 has an even more aggressive look. Belgian artist Bram Ramon is behind the complex decoration of this one-off piece, with a dial that features floral ornamentation and an impressive wolf’s head, combined with engraving work and miniature sculpture. The Wolf watch design – with its medieval touches and biker style – is a potent mixture of rock and roll, mythology and fine craftsmanship, a typical combination for ArtyA, enhanced here with the addition of a flying tourbillon. The wild wolf makes this Swiss timepiece into an expressive piece of jewelry for tough guys.

ArtyA: The Wolf Tourbillon 1/1 is one-of- a-kind with a steel case, gold inlays and an exclusive ArtyA hand- wind movement with flying tourbillon. $180,000.

An animal that evokes fear and fascination was transformed into a timepiece by the creative Geneva watch brand MB&F, in collaboration with the clockmaker L’Epée 1839. The spider clock Arachnophobia is designed as a table or wall clock – too large to be worn on the wrist. But the godmother of the eight-legged metal clock creature, whose body contains the timepiece, is many times larger. The Arachnophobia was inspired by the 9-meter-tall spider sculpture “Maman,” created by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, which exudes a feeling that’s both protective and threatening. The Arachnophobia embodies the fine line that exists between the macabre and elegance.

MB&F and L’Epée 1839: The Arachnophobia in black aluminum. The eight-day movement is wound with a key. CHF 14,500.

The Capri Edition comes in two 40mm executions, a chronograph and a sole tempo three-hand edition that are each crafted from aluminum and attached to resilient blue rubber straps. They are both limited to 1,000 pieces and feature a shaded blue dial reminiscent of the island’s famous faraglioni scenery. The dial also includes luminescent hands and indexes framed by a blue rubber bezel. There is also an engraving on the closed titanium case backs that displays a picture of these unique rock formations.

The Bulgari Aluminium Capri Chronograph is powered by the mechanical self-winding calibre B130 while the Bulgari Aluminium Capri Solotempo model offers accurate timekeeping thanks to the self-winding caliber B77. Pricing is marked at $4,800 and $3,350, respectively.

To learn more, visit Bulgari, here.

In 2022, Bulgari celebrated the 10th anniversary of its award-winning Octo collection with the Italian maison’s eighth world record, the thinnest mechanical watch ever produced. Meet the 1.8-mm thick Octo Finissimo Ultra.

1.80 mm. One point eight millimeters for the watch as a whole, from the caseback to the top of the sapphire crystal. That’s exactly half of an ETA 2829-A2 automatic movement. More importantly, 1.8 mm means that the Octo Finissimo Ultra (Ref. 103611) is an impressive 0.2 mm thinner than the previous record holder, the Piaget Altiplano Ultimate Concept watch from 2018. “’Can we do it?’ No sooner was the question asked three years ago than our teams answered, ‘How are we going to do it?’,” recalls Antoine Pin, Managing Director of the Bulgari Watch Division. “This ability to meet challenges is embedded in the brand’s DNA.” And he adds, “As for the word ‘ultra,’ it expresses this desire to go beyond the limits, to play with extremes — an idea that we love in-house!”

To create the world’s thinnest, and at the same time still reliable and robust mechanical watch, the designers, engineers and watchmakers had to start from scratch. Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari’s Product Creation Executive Director, explained, “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-miniaturization.”

One obvious example of the many challenges the team had to overcome: the indications for the hours, minutes and seconds all had to be executed separately to reduce height. The off-centered seconds display — a signature element of the collection — on the wheel at 6 o’clock, is placed next to the two regulator-type counters for the hours (top) and minutes (lower half). And speaking of signature elements, the Octo Finissimo Ultra retains all the design codes of the Octo collection, like the eight-sided case, representing the intersection of circle and square, or the overall monochromatic execution — an additional constraint that the R&D teams working on this project set themselves, according to Bulgari. As a result, the 40-mm octagonal case is made of sandblasted titanium and features an integrated bracelet as thin as the watch.

Three years of research and development were required for several technical teams involved from Bulgari in the Vallée de Joux and Neuchâtel and from movement specialist Concepto in La Chaux-de-Fonds to overcome all the difficulties involved with creating the world’s thinnest mechanical watch. One central technical solution: The construction of the Octo Finissimo Ultra uses the caseback as a mainplate on which the 170 components of the BVL Calibre 180 are integrated. The volume of the bracelet links also had to be totally rethought since, at 1.80 mm thick, they have to fit perfectly into the case, yet are twice as thin as an ordinary Octo Finissimo bracelet. In addition, the folding clasp also had to be redesigned.

Another issue was the overall rigidity required, which was achieved by combining the case middle, bezel and titanium lugs with a caseback/mainplate element in tungsten carbide, a particularly dense, hard and ultra-resistant combination of carbon and tungsten. Moreover, in order to take advantage of the entire surface of the watch, the hours and minutes dials, the large barrel — which stores an impressive 50 hours of power reserve — as well as the escapement have redefined the circular geometry of the bezel opening.

In short, at this level of thinness, and when all the components of a mechanical watch are indispensable, Bulgari had to rethink not only the components’ design and production — to restricted tolerances — but also their functions. Whereas a component serves a single function in an ordinary watch, some of them now need to serve up to four functions in an ultra-miniaturized watch like the Octo Finissimo Ultra. Such is the case with the dial, which, in addition to displaying time indications, also serves to hold components in place.

Another problem to be solved was the crown for winding and setting the watch: If it had to fit on a 1.80 mm thickness, a classic vertical crown would be much too small and impossible to handle properly. Bulgari’s solution was to use two horizontally placed knobs — one for winding and the other for setting. Another innovation lies in a differential gear mechanism serving to handle time-setting without disturbing the gear train.

Unsurprisingly, a total of eight patent applications have been filed as a result of the work invested in making this new dimension of contemporary watchmaking possible. They relate to the watch glass assembly, barrel structure, oscillator module, differential display, modular structure, bracelet, bimetal case middle-mainplate/caseback, as well as the Bulgari Singularity technology.

The individual QR code that has been engraved on the barrel’s ratchet wheel serves as a gateway to additional digital content, like interviews, “making of” segments, a virtual 3D tour of the movement and an exploration of the visible/ invisible concept linked to the watch. More importantly, each of the 10 owners will receive an exclusive NFT (nonfungible token) artwork, which is both guaranteeing the authenticity of the watch and also serves as a link between watch and owner. Bulgari calls this “an everlasting bond guaranteed by the Bulgari Singularity tech,” which also happens to be the eighth patent.

Regardless of where the owner looks at the watch, the Octo Finissimo Ultra appears to be both a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional object. From the front, the watch allows the wearer to experience the depth of the mechanism; viewed in profile, the watch almost becomes a twodimensional object.

“This fabulous benchmark that we are setting today with the Octo Finissimo Ultra is, in fact, for me and for all the teams, an apparently impossible dream come true,” notes Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO Bulgari, “one that guarantees that Bulgari will forever be recognized as a company that has written some of the finest pages in Swiss watchmaking. And the fact that this is an Italian house makes us particularly proud.”

Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra Specs:

Manufacturer: Bulgari Horlogerie SA, Manufacture de Haute Haute Horlogerie, Rue de Monruz 34, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland 

Reference number: 103611 

Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds 

Movement: Mechanical manual-winding movement BVL Calibre 180 (1.50 mm thick), 50-hour power reserve, 28,800 vph 

Case: Sandblasted titanium case and tungsten carbide plate with anthracite DLC treatment, black PVD-treated hands, water resistant to 10 m 

Bracelet and clasp: Titanium bracelet with integrated folding clasp 

Dimensions: Diameter = 40 mm, height = 1.8 mm 

Price: €400,000

To learn more about Bulgari, click here, and to subscribe to the WatchTime print magazine, click here.    

Watches have become noticeably more colorful during the past decade. As recently as 2010, luxury watches were still mainly an achromatic affair — with white or black dials and silvery steel cases, at most there was a singular red hand. But this situation soon changed. Colorful dials and bracelets became more frequent, and materials like rubber invited designers to play with color. In the second half of the decade, watches at first became blue, and later, more and more models appeared in green. Both trends continue to this day. But in 2021, a completely different hue moved into the limelight: gray.

The surprising thing is that none of these gray watches looks gray — at least, not in the sense that people often associate with gray — drab, boring or inconspicuous. These watches are different. They stride onto a watch stage that is much more colorful and diverse than ever before. Today, any color is conceivable, even for a luxury watch, both in terms of technical feasibility and public acceptance. A watch that’s gray could just as easily be green, blue or red. Against this background, the conscious decision in favor of gray becomes a statement, and the effect is totally different than it would have been in 2010.

At the same time, gray is the antithesis to the world of colorful diversity. It invites its viewer to rest, pause and take a breather. Gray has another fascinating quality: it’s not one-dimensional because not all grays are the same. On the one hand, this is due to the proportions of white and black, which make the gray look darker or lighter. On the other hand, some gray tones look almost colorful because they change to green, blue or brown, depending on the lighting.

A version of this article appears in the WatchTime Special Design Issue 2022, on sale now.