An integrated manufacture with its own movement, dial, and case manufacturing facilities, Bulgari has implemented a major shift in the way it approaches the in-house production of some of its most important components. Its Saignelégier Manufacture, an essential pillar of Bulgari’s watchmaking division as the home to the production of dials and cases, has undergone a significant renovation and expansion as part of a unique merger between two widely different crafts that will surely fascinate the blue-blooded watch enthusiast.
Vertical integration is a relatively novel trend in the centuries-old Swiss watch industry that, for the longest time, relied on independent producers of cases, dials, movements, and other specialized parts. This old practice, while efficient and necessary due to various limitations of the time, used to result in a selection of watches produced by competing brands while offering largely identical calibers, performance, and qualities. However, since the dawn of their renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s, luxury watches have undergone an incredible evolution that affected complexity of design, variety and capability of materials used, as well as technical refinement and chronometric performance. A perfect case in point: With its nine world-record-setting Octo Finissimo watches, Bulgari has been at the forefront of mechanical innovation through ultra-thin design and execution.
Bulgari could set these new standards in thinness, refinement, quality, and performance because it strategically equipped itself, between 2000 and 2005, with a proprietary set of facilities as a forward-thinking watchmaker. These facilities could wholly focus on the challenges the Italian-Swiss watchmaker had set for itself as independent third-party suppliers, known to be pulled in many directions, could hardly aspire to perform the innumerable modifications, alterations, and improvements Bulgari implemented in the research and development phases. Without these tireless procedures of planning and engineering, the Finissimo series of watches that set new world records would have remained but a dream.
Safeguarded by the Jura Mountains, Bulgari inaugurated its redesigned and enlarged Saignelégier facility on November 14, 2024, combining watch case and watch dial production under one roof since 2019 — an exceptional setup in the industry. With the addition of a new floor, the site has grown from 3,400 to 4,400 square meters. Its scale, along with the diversity of crafts it accommodates, will enable Bulgari to fully leverage the synergies offered by vertical integration.
Always proud of their work, the craftspeople who turn Bulgari watches into reality are understandably protective of their savoir-faire, methodology, and preferred working environment, with a preference to focus on their proprietary and well-honed practices as opposed to the next opportunity to alter the surroundings that allow them to perform so highly. As such, it took Bulgari’s bold approach to bring two distinctly different disciplines — the production of watch cases and watch dials — under one roof and thus unite craftspeople who have traditionally and historically worked separately.
Having mastered dial and case production internally, albeit thus far at two separate locations, Bulgari developed a unique understanding of the synergies between these two crafts. A dial lives in perfect isolation, with its myriads of textures, appliqués, and surface treatments never to be touched by hand. By contrast, a case is to hold up against years and decades of battery from knocks, scrapes, liquids, direct UV radiation, skin contact, and so much more. And yet, both dials and cases are to be made with a tolerance measured in microns and are to be pleasing to the eye down to their most minute detail. One is robust and hard-wearing, the other: jewelry. The synergy lies in this contrast, as dials are often pushed to become yet more delicate, and cases yet more tough — and so they each benefit from the other’s approach.
Before their merger in Saignelégier, dial and case makers used to hone their craft in isolation, even when they were working with identical materials. Seen above are two polishers, one working on the complicated and small facets of an Octo Finissimo case, while the other is polishing the gem-set dial of a Serpenti Tubogas watch. The dial of the Serpenti is noticeably curved — an exceedingly rare trait among watch dials — and is lavishly adorned with diamonds. Either of these attributes would require a novel approach from a dial decorator — and yet both (the complex three-dimensional shape and the gem-set surface) are much more often present on Bulgari watch cases.
In almost all vertically integrated manufactures, the dial maker would have no opportunity to seek the guidance or tips of the case maker who is more used to tackling these highly specific challenges… And that is how it used to be in the mid-2000s when Bulgari had these two facilities in separation, case making in Saignelégier and dial production as “Bvlgari Manufacture de Cadrans,” in La Chaux-de-Fonds. By combining the two inside the expanded and upgraded Saignelégier facility, sharing the brand’s painstakingly developed and versatile know-how has become a unique possibility at Bulgari.
The Saignelégier Manufacture merges a range of large-scale production machines with the new Métiers d’Art workshop that ensures an atmosphere of silence and calm, required for artisanal crafts. The state-of-the-art machinery is organized into workshops that can handle both small and medium production runs, as well as high-end artisanal applications. This setup necessitated a redesign of the existing spaces to improve the flow of people and processes, the exchange of ideas, and ultimately, the level of production excellence. This combination of industrial and artisanal processes is being taken to the next level in Saignelégier, where, for example, lacquered dials that won’t tolerate the slightest presence of dust coexist with intricate hardstone mosaics.
Some 130 employees busy themselves at the Saignelégier manufacture, a site fully acquired by Bulgari in 2009 — back then as a specialized case maker. Today, it is called the Bulgari Manufacture D’Habillage, with habillage standing for just about every component of a watch outside of its movement. The freshly upgraded manufacture utilizes and perpetuates no fewer than 31 fields of expertise and manufacturing technologies across its Manufacturing, Finishing, Surface treatment, Assembly, Mechanical, and Métiers D’Art Workshops. Between these ateliers steel, aluminum, titanium, gold, platinum, bronze, ceramic, carbon, and hardstones are expertly treated and crafted every day, utilizing the singular variety of skills and know-how of the 130-strong team of craftspeople.
Last, Bulgari’s Saignelégier Manufacture now also features an additional floor with a staff restaurant and an outdoor terrace, along with a new wellness and recreation area. Indeed, the redesigned Saignelégier facility places the well-being of its employees at the heart of its design. The roof, façade, and parking areas have been redesigned to accommodate solar power generation capable of supplying 25% of the building’s energy needs. Coupled with redesigned workflows that reduce electricity consumption, this underscores Bulgari’s commitment to sustainability in alignment with requirements throughout the LVMH group.
Supported by the Bulgari Manufacture De Haute Horlogerie in Le Sentier, Vallée de Joux (acquired in 2000, expanded in 2007), where movement development and manufacturing takes place, and Bulgari Horlogerie in Neuchâtel (established in 1991), where design, final assembly and after-sales services happens, the case and dial production facility in Saignelégier is an essential part of Bulgari’s vertically integrated watch manufacture. As proven by the world-record-setting Octo Finissimo collection, the outstanding selection of unique chiming watches, and its world-renowned high-jewelry pieces, Bulgari has for decades been on its path to not only obtain but also fully harness the creative possibilities only made possible by a complete and completely proprietary watch manufacture. You can learn more at the brand’s website.
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