Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Skeleton : pure transparency

The watchmaking companies regularly do their utmost to put on startling demonstrations of the expertise of their craftsmen and –women when it comes to mastering their work. Bvlgari, here, has chosen to express its vision of haute horlogerie by developing simple mechanical movements or complications so refined they amaze the beholder and literally boggle the mind.

Bvlgari’s expertise, expressed here in the platinum version of the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Skeleton, lies in the architectural dimension the watchmakers gave the timepiece, the emotion and, finally, the feeling of volume of this fine piece. These elegant creations have the ability to integrate content and form, and as such they show how the Italian jeweler has developed a global design concept.

This manually-wound caliber has been skeletonized to the extreme. It represents perfectly the struggle that watchmakers have conducted successfully since the beginning of the industry to conjure passion and amazement by pushing the technical envelope beyond what is known. The asperities created by the thinness of the movement form a visual edginess that magnifies the feat performed by the master watchmakers at the manufacture in Sentier – a little village in the Joux Valley in Switzerland –  amely transfiguring the tourbillon heart of the watch by allowing light into it.

This work also lets the viewer fully enjoy the main components of the BVL 268 Finissimo caliber, which boasts a total of 253, including 13 rubies and eight ball-bearings. This spidery architecture, whose remaining structural elements are layered in black DLC, also makes the flying tourbillon look as if it were hovering between the two sapphire crystals. It’s a delicate watch, yet sober and very present, a marvel of lightness that will be the choice of the urbane man out to demonstrate the refinement of his taste for excellence.