DIAGONO SCUBA: Diving into the heart of time

DIAGONO SCUBA: Diving into the heart of time

A glimpse at the watch dial is enough to open up whole new horizons. The gaze slides across the watch and, in a fraction of a second, the city gives way to a shoreline… 

Hectic urban reality fades into the background, replaced by happy seaside memories and a desire for great depths. Few timepieces are endowed with such strong evocative powers as the Diagono Scuba, the nautical interpretation of the Bulgari sports watch.

The two-fold jewellery and watchmaking heritage of the Rome-based House ensures that functionality never supersedes style, even for watches. While performance naturally takes a central place, it is precisely because it strikes the perfect balance that Diagona Scuba consistently appeals to aesthetes and devotes of aquatic pleasures.

Tucked under a shirtsleeve in the city and whether at the office, on a motorbike or in the subway, it adopts the modern, sophisticated, fast and self-confident codes of modern life. While this sophisticated model blends in perfectly with a variety of formal professional or social settings, water definitely remains the favourite playground for the individual wearing it.

Diagono Scuba is not merely a diver’s watch complete with a raft of water-resistance patents. It is an elegant watch imbued with contemporary Italian refinement and clothed in a diving suit.

From Nantucket to Capri, from Portofino to Cape Cod or the far-off shores of the Caribbean, Diagono Scuba has found its place in high society as the watch of connoisseurs and aesthetes. Not just another technical instrument nor a mere fashion accessory, Diagono Scuba instead finds its place on the wrist of people sure of their tastes as well as their choices and who have nothing to prove.

More than just an alternative

The adventure began in 1994 when Bulgari introduced a nautical version of its Diagono sports watch. Its style was all about pure lines dedicated to efficiency. Diagono Scuba was much more than just an alternative among sports watches, and soon became a favourite with demanding customers, supplanting other more commonplace diver’s watches.

In the privileged circles of the international nautical world, Diagono Scuba, available in gold or steel versions fitted with the astonishing and highly specific metal bracelet or on a rubber strap, easily found its place on the decks of racing sailboats or yachts on a pleasure cruises. It offered a significant advantage in that that was no need to change watch for cocktails or a dinner, since Diagono Scuba remains elegant in every circumstance, accompanying its owner on all of life’s occasions, rather than merely serving as an indicator for strictly sporting moments.

Summer 2015 sees the Diagono Scuba return to the surface. Stronger as well as more beautiful, astonishing, luxurious and modern than ever, it proclaims its heritage and makes it an asset for the future, affirming this heredity with the boldness of novelty.

Bulgari presents four distinctive new versions of its iconic sports watch. Water-resistant to 300 metres, they are now equipped with the Manufacture BVL 191 Solotempo calibre.

Contemporary, urban and adventurous: a sports watch does not have to skimp on style to prove its efficiency. Bulgari firmly maintains this viewpoint and once again proves its relevance with the new Diagono Scuba

Toby Huntington-Whiteley wearing the new DG Scuba

Diagono Scuba according to Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani
Director of the Watch Design Center

The approach that guided the reinterpretation of the new Diagono Scuba absolutely had to preserve the spirit of the Scuba first-generation: an extremely chic watch symbolising Italian elegance. The essential elements of the original design have been maintained: a dial and bezel picking up the architectural codes of the Roman column and arches, as well as similar hands and hour-markers. The performance of the watch stems from its highly specific design.”

Diagono Scuba: a few quotes

“This is not the only new release from Bulgari, but it’s the one I like the most. The reintroduction of the legendary Bulgari Diagono Scuba, now with an in-house calibre, is fabulous… In its day, the Bulgari Diagono Scuba was the Rolex Submariner, especially for the Italian upper class, but definitely not only for them… The Bulgari Diagono Scuba was a noble watch, a kind of club watch in Sardinia on the Costa Smeralda and many other places where the rich and famous met. The Diagono Scuba reminds me of part of my personal history as I had an example of the first version. Now the diver’s watch returns at a different price point (especially in steel) and is also equipped with a Bulgari Automatic calibre.”

- Alexander Linz, specialised journalist blogger, owner at the time of the first version of the Diagono Scuba

“When Bulgari launched the first Scuba in 1994, it redefined the whole idea of sporting chic. Equally at home under water as it is on a lively terrace in Porto Cervo, the Scuba has become a sport chic icon. I’m really excited about the idea of a renewal of this model that will once again appeal to a clientele who enjoy a fine lifestyle, sunshine and the sea. Doubtless the watch of summer 2015!”

- Alexander Friedmann, co-founder of Watchonista