Bulgari-Revolution Octo Finissimo Limited Edition
Bulgari create a special-edition Octo Finissimo Petite Seconde for The Rake's sister magazine Revolution — a breathtakingly elegant watch in grade 5 titanium.
The post-war era of the ’50s stretching through the counter-culture ’60s and the heady opiatic ’70s was a golden era for the Riviera. And among its most revered denizens were the playboys that littered its undulating coastal outlines. Hailing from far-flung reaches such as the Dominican Republic, in the case of larger-than-life Porfirio Rubirosa, Germany, in the case of the legendary Gunter Sachs, and even modern-day Pakistan, in the case of Aly Khan, each made the holy pilgrimage to the mecca of sun, romance, and affluence, doing battle for seductive dominance through their accumulated arsenals of bespoke suits, multi-linguistic skills, athletic ability, bedroom heroism and romantic acumen. But of all the qualities of the legendary playboys from “Baby” Pignatari to Gianni Agnelli to Gigi Rizzi, the greatest asset, beyond manes of leonine hair, suntanned visages and sports cars driving skills, was their unparalleled taste.
And it is not a coincidence that the three men last mentioned are Italian, because there is a certain profound capacity for aesthetic appreciation that flows within the genetic make-up of all men hailing from the land of Caesar and Da Vinci. I oftentimes think about what if those men had lived today; if somehow, through a parallel universe prism, the world of the Riviera ceased to be the asinine land of priapically-winged fluorescent Lamborghinis, jeroboams of Ace of Spades wielded by braindead nightclub zombies and consumed by men with diamond-festooned “wrist game” — and in its place, the coastal climes of Southern France and Italy were once again a place where, in the words of my friend Nick Foulkes, “Money and taste actually aligned.” What watch would these paladins of panjandrumism wear with perfect dégagé élan as they spring out of their road-dust-covered 250 short-wheel-base Berlinettas, Rubinacci blazers draped casually over their shoulders?
The Octo In the Present Age
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that their watch of choice would be the modern Bulgari Octo Finissimo. Why so, you ask? Why not an ultra-rare three-coloured screw-pusher RCO “Paul Newman” Daytona with tropical seconds track? Well, because there is something of a cliché today related to wearing vintage watches — in many ways, they have become the millennial equivalent to the skeletonized double tourbillon, a way to instantly state, “Look how much money I have”, without opening your mouth or wallet. But the problem is, in order for enough people to instantly recognize that the 40-year-old Big-Crown, ex-military, brown-dialed whatever-you-have-on is worth three fully loaded Bentley Bentaygas, it means that the vintage thing has hit such critical mass that it’s become commonplace. And as such, a true playboy, one whose objective is to unite intellect and erudition with his libertine impulses, is not going to take the path most traveled. The Bulgari Octo, on the other hand, takes actual taste to appreciate. It is in essence an ultra-flat watch with a distinct faceted eight-sided case and a complimentary yet contrasting eight-sided bezel. But one look at it and your eye is instinctively tempted to exploring its dynamic sculpturalism. My friend Flavio Manzoni, who is Ferrari’s creative director, talks often about dynamic tension in objects. And in the Octo, the team of watch boss Guido Terreni and design director Fabrizio Buonamassa — yes, not coincidentally, two Italians — have done precisely that.
The Octo Finissimo is, from an aesthetic perspective, probably the most uniquely shaped modern men’s timepiece on the market. Somehow, it is able to unite a sense of Latin sexiness with a jolt of architectural intelligence, while displaying a full mastering of Swiss watchmaking acumen. Much has been made about the original Octo watch being designed by Gérald Genta, and while there is a truth to this, the reality is that Terreni and Buonamassa have actually taken the original geometric concept of the Octo and created a far more relevant, exciting and appealing modern watch. This is amusing because two of Genta’s other watches, the Royal Oak and the Nautilus, have remained in their essentially unchanged forms since he created them in the mid-70s. Contrasted with the Octo, you’ll see that even though there is an intellectual connection between all three watches, the Octo feels so much more a product of the modern world — the watch Genta would have designed if he were alive today and at the height of his creative powers.
The extraordinary ability of Bulgari as a watchmaker becomes evident when you strap the Octo Finissimo on your wrist and turn it sideways. Suddenly your mind struggles to understand how such an incredibly thin and refined watch can also exhibit such dynamic muscularity. And it is these two contrasting aspects of the Octo Finissimo that makes it so delicious to wear. Because its refined elegance in terms of its 5mm overall thickness (OK, 5.15mm to be exact) makes it perfect to slip under the shirt cuff of a Cifonelli smoking jacket, yet its 40mm presence resplendent with its sharp, at times even brutally sexy, facets makes it perfect to be worn in a sports chic context — think poolside at the Hotel du Cap gesturing at your vintage wooden-hulled Riva moored below, using your Behike as a pointer.
In order for Bulgari to create such a thin watch, they had to unite three of their unique competences related to dial-, case- and movement-making. For example, the bezel has feet milled into it at the machining stage that travel all the way through the case and are fixed in place in the back of the watch. The Octo Finissimo doesn’t have a traditional caseback so as to minimize the profile of the case. As such, the movement is put into the watch from the front and the bezel holds the entire architecture of the watch in place. The dial of the watch is another technical masterpiece — at 0.2mm in thickness, its overall dimension once the special galvanically grown indexes are glued onto it is still thinner than a single applied index on a traditional watch. The in-house full-bridge movement has 65 hours of power reserve despite being only 2.23mm in thickness, and from my experience with it, has been extremely reliable in terms of timekeeping. For 10 reasons why you need a Bulgari Octo Finissimo in your life, read this.