Bulgari is a Roman jewelry house that became a serious watchmaker almost by accident. A Greek silversmith fled to Rome in the 1880s, built a jewelry empire, and a century later his successors bought a watch designer’s company and started breaking engineering records. It is one of the stranger success stories in the industry.
The silversmith
Sotirios Voulgaris was born in 1857 in Paramythia, Greece, the only survivor of eleven children in a family of silversmiths. After Ottoman violence burned the town, the family fled to Corfu, then Voulgaris moved to Italy: Naples first, then Rome. In 1884 he opened a shop on Via Sistina, Italianizing his name to Sotirio Bulgari. In 1905 he opened the flagship on Via Condotti, still the brand’s home.
His sons Giorgio and Costantino took over and built Bulgari into an international jewelry house. In 1934 they adopted the BVLGARI spelling, using the Roman V for U. The Serpenti, the snake bracelet that became the brand’s signature, appeared in the 1940s. By mid-century Bulgari was dressing Elizabeth Taylor and every other star of the Cinecittà era. Jewelry was the business. Watches were an accessory line.
Getting serious
Bulgari opened Swiss production facilities in the early 1980s and released the Bvlgari-Bvlgari watch in 1977, engraving the logo around the bezel like a Roman coin. It sold well. But the real move came in 2000, when Bulgari bought the Gérald Genta brand outright, along with Daniel Roth. Overnight, a jewelry house owned two serious watchmaking operations and one of the most famous designers in the industry.
In 2011, LVMH bought Bulgari for €4.3 billion. Under LVMH’s ownership and with the Genta manufacture behind it, Bulgari started competing with the Swiss on pure watchmaking. Nobody expected what came next.
The thinness wars
The Octo launched in 2012, an angular eight-sided design. Then came the Finissimo versions, and Bulgari started collecting records: thinnest tourbillon, thinnest minute repeater, thinnest perpetual calendar, thinnest chronograph. In March 2022, the Octo Finissimo Ultra hit 1.80mm thick, the thinnest mechanical watch ever made.
It held the record for four months. In July 2022, Richard Mille and Ferrari released the RM UP-01 at 1.75mm, beating Bulgari by the width of a human hair. A $1.9 million watch built with Ferrari branding, and it took the crown.
Bulgari took it back. In April 2024, the Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC came in at 1.70mm, reclaiming the title and adding COSC chronometer certification for good measure. As of now, the jewelry house from Rome holds the record for the thinnest mechanical watch in the world.
This is genuinely impressive engineering. Making a mechanical watch that thin means rethinking everything: the movement architecture, the materials, the assembly. The Swiss specialists in ultra-thin, with centuries of experience, got beaten by a company that started making watches seriously about twenty years ago. Some of them are still annoyed about it.
Why it matters
A jewelry company bought a watch designer’s brand and ended up out-engineering the Swiss at ultra-thin watchmaking. That part is genuinely impressive. The thinness war itself was silly: three companies spending millions to make watches too thin to actually wear, competing over fractions of a millimeter. It was a flex, not a product. An entertaining flex, but let’s not pretend the 1.70mm watch is for anyone’s wrist.
Official site: bulgari.com
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