“Time is a jewel”, declares Bulgari, and the maison delivered—its presentation was dominated by jewellery watches set with glittering diamonds and gemstones of the most vibrant hues, spanning its Divas’ Dream, Allegra and Serpenti collections. According to Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, product creation executive director at Bulgari, that was precisely the intention of the brand. “The idea is that for the beginning of the year, we would love to start with these jewellery watches to talk about…our creativity in different segments,” he explains, describing as “a very tough project” the process of gathering gems of precise colours needed to create the exacting paved dials of the Divas’ Dream Mosaica novelties.
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The total reformulation of Bulgari’s Serpenti Tubogas wrapping bracelet watch was another point of pride for Buonamassa Stigliani. A decades-long deliberation on possible techniques for incorporating diamonds in the narrow coils of the Serpenti Tubogas bracelet, a decision to overhaul the construction entirely, and five years “to find the right balance, the right supplier, the right stones, and the right design, plus several trials and several propositions about the thickness”—now Bulgari unveils the Serpenti Tubogas Infinity, the most challenging piece of this LVMH Watch Week cohort for Bulgari. “It looks the same [as previous Serpenti Tubogas models] but it is a brand new watch with a completely different way of craftsmanship,” he elaborates. “That’s why we have diamonds now—it’s the first time in our history that we have diamonds on the Tubogas watch.”
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Looking ahead, with watches debuting in 2025 and development on those to be released in 2026 concurrently in progress, it is a tight timetable and precise schedule the house must stick to. “But on the other hand, you have to have the flexibility to change your mind, if you discover that your idea is not correct anymore, because otherwise it’s dangerous [to continue],” Buonamassa Stigliani explains. “In the end, Bulgari is a unique brand because it has the agility of an independent brand, but with an amazing structure behind it, in terms of people, know-how, heritage, potential and revenues. We have some crazy ideas that you cannot make if you’re a certain brand, but why not [for Bulgari]?”
Diva’s Dream Mosaica: An extraordinary exhibition of the maison’s jewellery prowess, the two new 37mm Divas’ Dream Mosaica models bear fully snow-set dials of diamonds and coloured sapphires arranged in an arresting gradient, and in a tessellation of the fan-shaped motif that is the defining symbol of the collection. At once opulent and playful, the paved duo bear coloured gems on the bezel that take the place of hour markers, while cabochons of pink or blue sapphire adorn the crown. Both are powered by the mechanical self-winding movement Calibre BVL 191, visible through the transparent caseback.
Allegra: Named after the Italian word meaning ‘joy’, these candy-coloured quartz timepieces feature an organic arrangement of round brilliant-cut diamonds, pink or yellow sapphires, and tourmalines, citrines, rhodolites and peridots in a variety of cuts, encircling a mother-of-pearl dial set with 12 diamond hour markers. Matching the brilliance of the gemstones and the 36mm case of rose gold or yellow gold is an alligator leather strap with iridescence, complete with a diamond-set buckle.
Serpenti Tubogas Infinity: The Serpenti motif and the Tubogas coil have been emblematic of the maison for decades, the latter built upon a tensile coil made of several metres of gold or steel wire for innovative flexibility. Now, the Serpenti Tubogas construction has been entirely rethought: the new mechanism has polished, gem-set individual rings assembled on a titanium blade, so that the silhouette flows seamlessly from the watch case to the bracelet, with snow-set diamonds traversing curved surfaces all the way up to the bezel. Accented with a single cabochon-cut pink rubellite on the crown, the rose gold quartz-powered
Serpenti Tubogas Infinity is available in single- or double-twirl configurations.
This article originally appeared on Grazia Singapore.
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