This watch offers a new interpretation of the formal purity of the octagon. This geometrical figure, conveying a wealth of cultural and spiritual symbolism, has been regarded as a source of perfection since time immemorial, through antiquity and the Renaissance. Following on from diverse formal variations on the Octo theme, it reinvents itself in this new case with its modern, urban proportions.
 

Bulgari makes no distinction between form and substance. The task of modelling shapes and seeking aesthetic balance is not gratuitous, but instead consistently intended to match functionality. The formal purity of this outstanding watch is now dedicated to a new horological vision: allowing light to pour in so as to magnify the beauty of the movement, imbued with an innovative, modernistic approach.
 

Through its dial and its transparent caseback, this spectacular 44mm-diameter timepiece crafted in titanium DLC-black coated (Diamond Like Carbon) offers connoisseurs a visual immersion into the system itself. The mechanical manual-winding flying tourbillon movement, Calibre BVL 206, is staged at the heart of the watch and features 11 DLC-coated bridges adorned with blue bars made of ITR2 – a unique composite material laden with carbon nanotube particles and endowed with metal-like hardness – and SLN, a high-tech luminescent material. The bridges are used as hour-markers, thereby serving both to support the movement and as functional elements in reading off the hours and minutes. The time-setting operations of the Octo Tourbillon Sapphire stem from a sophisticated development process. One press on the crown reveals a red dot in the micro-aperture at 3 o’clock, signalling that the time may be set simply by rotating the crown. Once the operation is complete, a further press causes the dot to vanish and locks the time-setting mechanism.
 

With Octo Tourbillon Sapphire, Bulgari continues to provide its eminently personal definition of horological excellence. A definition that is all about transparency.