The Bulgari Grande Sonnerie Quantieme Perpetuel takes the already very complex layout of the previous movement to another level, as it is one of the most complicated chiming watches ever created. With nearly 1,000 components in its movement, it features a four-gong grande sonnerie chiming mechanism that chimes every elapsed quarter and also marks every new hour automatically – this function can, of course, be turned off thanks to a silent mode – and also works as a minute repeater, chiming the exact time “on demand” whenever the mechanism is started.

Its dial features indications for the perpetual calendar function, along with two power reserve displays: one for the 48-hour reserve of the main movement, and the other, at the 01:30 position, for the 24-hour power reserve of the chiming mechanism. Its 923-component movement is fitted into a 48-millimeter-wide gold case. As an extremely rare feat, the grande sonnerie function of this in-house caliber manufactured at the Bulgari haute horlogerie workshops is matched to not only a perpetual calendar and a tourbillon regulating organ, but also to automatic winding.

This Bulgari Octo Grande Sonnerie offers a combination of one of Genta’s trademark designs, the Bulgari Octo case, and a highly complicated, in-house manufactured and hand-finished caliber. This Grande Sonnerie timepiece matches the angular, complex, and powerful-looking case to one of Genta’s preferred, funky ways of telling the time: a retrograde hour indicator reserves the left-hand side of the dial, while exposed via an arched opening in the center, the minutes are indicated on a rotating disc. Four additional sub-dials are there to show the power reserves for both the movement and the sonnerie, as well as the on/silent and grande/petite mode selectors for the chiming mechanism.

We have seen three greatly different and highly complicated pieces from the Bulgari haute horlogerie workshops – the first one displayed a strong integration of watch case, dial, and movement design; the second demonstrated the absolute limits of complexity with its over-900-piece total component count and unusual mix of complications; while the last showed how unusual dial layouts and time indications can nonetheless be matched to what turned out to be the common thing between all three pieces: the chiming mechanism.

The very point of becoming an established, vertically integrated manufacture is to ensure the freedom to create with relative ease and to deliver products that in turn provide a consistently refreshing mixture of the traditional and the unusual – at Bulgari, even at the level of haute horlogerie, these goals are pursued at the manufacture’s specialized and dedicated workshop. bulgari.com