ReviewBulgari’s Octo Finissimo Ultra: The Thinnest Mechanical Watch Ever (With A Show-Stealing QR-Code)
Marking 10 years of Octo and records in ultra-thin watchmaking, Bulgari’s latest slim creation is the thinnest mechanical ever, and it comes with a non-fungible token (NFT) along with a digital presence for every owner—all accessible by scanning the QR code right there on the dial. Whatever your feelings are about the very bold centrepiece of this watch—even as it can distract you from the main achievements—you can’t not be in awe of the achievements themselves. Let’s look a little deeper
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Top-tier watch brands love making statements of various kinds, especially if there’s a distinguishing quality that they’ve achieved with their products. Among them are the likes of Bulgari. Year after year, quite literally, they have made one fat statement after another, by going thin. Since 2014, every year, they’ve unveiled a world record in slim watchmaking (except for 2015). After launching their Octo collection in 2012, with L’Originale, which set the tone for the future of their signature octagonal watches, there have been a spate of complications—including the prestigious minute repeater and tourbillon—each one breaking some kind of a record in its genre. The seven records up until 2022 were:
- 2014: Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Manual (5mm); calibre BVL 268 at 1.95mm
- 2016: Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater (6.85mm); calibre BVL 362 at 3.12mm
- 2017: Octo Finissimo Automatic (5.15mm); calibre BVL 138 at 2.23mm
- 2018: Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic (3.95mm), BVL 288 at 1.95mm
- 2019: Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT Automatic (8.75mm); calibre BVL 318 at 3.3mm
- 2020: Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Chronograph Skeleton Automatic (7.4mm), calibre BVL 388 at 3.5mm
- 2021: Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar (5.8); calibre BVL 305 at 2.75mm
And this year, 10 years after the eight-sided watch was launched, Bulgari have come out with their eighth world record, with eight patents. However, while the previous records have mostly been 5mm and above in watch thickness, the total thickness of this Octo Finissimo Ultra is merely 1.8mm. Now that is wafer-thin, literally; even Pringles can be almost as thick. To be able to go so thin and make the thinnest mechanical watch ever, the manual-winding calibre BVL 180 had to be integrated into the case, with the caseback acting like the main-plate—the base for all 170 components.
Finissimo And The Race For Slimness
It’s not the first time this has been done though. It was Piaget, in 2017, who had done this with their Altiplano Ultimate 910P. Even they weren’t the first, but at 4.3mm in thickness, that Altiplano was the thinnest mechanical watch, at the time. In fact, Piaget and Bulgari have been in constant competition for distinctions of making the thinnest timepieces. Others have also been in the race for slimness, but not like these two. Even the watch right before the Octo Finissimo to hold the distinction of being the thinnest mechanical was a Piaget Altiplano—first presented as a concept watch in 2018, but released as a production piece in 2020. It was 2mm thin. The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra just broke that record, by a hair—again, quite literally, since even hair strands can be as thick as 0.2mm.
Finissimo Reimagines Watchmaking
Yet, at 1.8mm, this watch can store a power reserve of up to 50 hours, owing to its large barrel, which Bulgari somehow managed to squeeze in. The case looks quite large, but that’s only because you see the diameter—a standard 40mm—relative to the thickness. Made of sandblasted titanium, the main case’s back/main-plate is crafted out of tungsten carbide with anthracite DLC treatment. However, it wasn’t as simple as just making all the parts thinner and mounting it on the plate. “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,” states Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari’s product creation executive director. “To achieve this degree of thinness, you must draw upon a wide range of skills, play with multiple materials and adapt to a multitude of new constraints.”
Finissimo Reinvents The Crown As A Wheel
It took three years of research and development and multiple teams of technical specialists, across Bulgari’s facilities in Vallée de Joux and Neuchâtel and movement developers, Concepto, in La Chaux-de-Fonds—all in Switzerland. Every element had to be considered very carefully, for such reasons as the integrity of the construction itself, which was brought about by using tungsten carbide—a combination of tungsten and carbon that is extremely hard and ultra-resistant. Unlike a regular watch, each component in the Finissimo Ultra had to perform more than one function as the components had to be edited down to the bare minimum. The dial, for instance, holds other components as well, in addition to displaying time.
Ironically, the crown’s two functions—of winding and setting time—had to be split into two horizontal wheel-like knobs, since a regular vertical crown would have been too small and impossible to handle properly. Besides, the knobs—at three o’clock for time-setting and at eight for winding—should be rather easy to use even when the watch is on the wrist. And just like the wheel crowns, all the watch functions were built into the same horizontal plane, including the hours, minutes and seconds, which are seen clockwise from two to six o’clock. On the opposite side, beside the seconds disc is the escapement, and above it is the huge ratchet wheel. And on that, you see the attention-stealer of this watch.
Finissimo’s Show Stealer
Engraved onto the ratchet wheel is a QR code, which actually works in all 10 pieces of the limited-edition Finissimo Ultra. Each piece’s QR code will serve as a link to an exclusive NFT artwork meant for its owner, owing to blockchain technology. The QR will also lead each owner to ‘a new dimension, connected to a unique timeless experience’—which is how the brand have expressed its purpose. It is also said to be an extension of the ‘non-physical world’, which quite clearly is indicative of the metaverse that’s suddenly become a rage. The exclusive space will also include a world of knowledge about the watch itself, and a virtual 3D tour of the extremely slim movement—all powered by a software called ‘Bvlgari Singvlarity’. So it effectively makes the watch a virtual ‘vault’ for each exclusive and unique NFT.
The Finissimo’s Ultra Statement
The whole QR-NFT thing seems to be a little gimmicky. Yet, since it has a purpose, it’s obviously not gratuitous. And it could be of great value not too far into the future, when the metaverse becomes the big deal that it is expected to become and NFTs become an even bigger deal than they already are. However, it still feels a little jarring to have it right there on the dial, grabbing away the attention from everything else. It could have easily been done on the caseback, and the design of the watch’s façade would age much better over the years. It definitely feels like too much of a statement, which was not required for a watch that has so much for it to stand on, as statement enough. Even the crown wheels alone are a statement…not to mention the eight patents that this watch has (related to the glass assembly, barrel structure, oscillator module, differential display, modular structure, bracelet, bimetal case middle-mainplate/caseback, and Bvlgari Singvlarity). And the QR also takes away from the splendid depth that the dial otherwise has, which is such a wonderful paradox for a watch that looks so two-dimensional—like a straight line—from the 90-degree profile view. The flatness is otherwise flawless. Yes, the ultimate statement in ultra-miniaturisation of the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra is most definitely statement enough. And on that note, let’s end by thinking about what their next statement could possibly be. Where do you go after 1.8mm?
