Bulgari Grande Sonnerie with Perpetual Calendar.
Bulgari introduced a whopping 39 new watches at an event in Shanghai recently, including 19 men’s pieces, eight of which are fascinating variations in the Octo Roma collection. The star of these is the Grande Sonnerie with Perpetual Calendar in a special Shanghai edition loaded with baguette diamonds. The watch, which contains caliber BVL 980, was introduced earlier this year at Baselworld to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first Grande Sonnerie created by Gerald Genta in 1994. Genta, who designed the Patek Philippe Nautilus and the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, is one of the world’s most celebrated watch designers. He started his own brand in 1969, specializing in minute repeaters and sonneries, and sold it to Bulgari in 1998. The special Shanghai edition is 18k white gold, set with baguette diamonds and a case middle made of titanium. It is limited to eight pieces, each priced at $953,000.
The Bulgari Octo Roma Tourbillon in jade.
Bulgari Octo Roma Tourbillon.
Bulgari also debuted four new limited editions of the Octo Roma Tourbillon. Two are 18k rose gold, one with a case middle made of lapis lazuli and the other made of jade. The third Octo Roma Tourbillon has a platinum case with a case middle made of tubes filled with white Super-LumiNova, a second version of which is fully set with baguette diamonds and limited to 20 pieces. The first three are semi-paved with baguette diamonds and limited to 30 pieces. They are priced at $244,000 for the lapis version, $260,000 for the jade version and platinum versions.
Bulgari Octo Roma Tourbillon with lapis lazuli.
Bulgari Octo Roma Tourbillon with lapis lazuli.
Finally there are three new editions of another tourbillon, the Octo Roma Monete, in titanium, pink gold and platinum versions. It contains Bulgari’s extra thin caliber BVL 268 SK, a skeletonized version of the BVL 268, the world’s thinnest tourbillon movement, originally introduced in 2014.
The Bulgari Octo Roma Monete.
The Monete has a hunter style case with a cover that swings open to reveal the movement through an openworked dial. It is made with a framed medallion depicting Constantius II, son of the Roman emperor Constantine, who is shown on the inside of the case/coin. It is $530,000 in titanium, $502,000 in pink gold, and $521,000 in platinum.
The Bulgari Octo Roma Monete.
Although all of these pieces were released on the Asian market, limited editions tend to appear more quickly than ever on the secondary market, and these ones are worth keeping an eye out for.
