This hands-on with the Bulgari Serpenti Tadao Ando marquetry dial watches has been pending for some time because I wanted to write my next take on the Serpenti only after I have figured out what it is that’s been bugging me about it. Not in a bad way, rather a mysterious, difficult-to-identify way. Because you’re reading this, you know I have worked it out.

Whenever I’ve been presented with one or more Serpenti watches, I looked at them closely, most of the time even tried one or two on. No other women’s watch has ever had quite this pull on me. Not even the fact that they, every time, looked rather awful on me — unsurprisingly, since my wardrobe lacks the sort of feminine touch that is essential to create the right environment for a Serpenti. So, where is the Serpenti gravitas and conundrum coming from?

Having had all this exposure to them, including these Bulgari Serpenti Tadao Ando watches with elaborate marquetry dials and varied case and bracelet material options, it all finally ticked: I simply don’t know of a men’s watch that could turn its genre up to 11 like the Serpenti does with its own. In other words, the Serpenti does femininity so right as no watch collection that I can think of ever managed to do masculinity. It is not a competition, just simply a styling and thought exercise that invites us all to look through watchmaking history.

Although Breguet created the first-ever wristwatch for the Queen of Naples in 1810, and wristwatches remained dedicated to women for a century thereafter, in more recent memory, I think it is safe to say that men’s watches have had a much higher number of styling experiments and thus had so much more time and opportunity to turn a men’s watch up to 11 in such a pure and powerful way as the Serpenti does for a women’s timepiece.

Even when we turned John Rambo into an actual offshore survivor tool, it just ended up looking ridiculous (which, I think, the Serpenti never is, not even in its more playful iterations), and if we took a classic style and mechanical complexity, it became too tame and boring to hold a candle to the exciting Serpenti. I don’t wish to imply that the Serpenti is a universally appealing watch, or that it is the best women’s watch, but I do think that it is a women’s watch in a way and to an extent that no watch is a men’s a watch. I would love to hear whether you agree with this idea, as well as your suggestions for men’s watches that you think would make for a solid pair to the Serpenti.

On or off the wrist, the Serpenti has been very much its own thing since the Serpenti Tubogas of the 1940s. Likewise, snakes have been very much their own thing since the dawn of ancient civilizations, and while we have lost touch with much of those cultures and mythologies, and we spend less time in nature than we do at the dentist, somehow a connection with this paradoxical creature — linked with healing, fertility, protection, as well as an invitation to a rattly death — remains a powerful one to this day. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that, for some reason, we have not managed to find such a powerful symbol for men’s watches, and while I appreciate their tool-based origins, even the best tool-based or tool-inspired watches struggle to get quite so special.

The Bulgari Serpenti Tadao Ando watches are split into four versions for the four seasons. They are as follows: two-tone 18k yellow gold and stainless steel with a green aventurine mosaic dial for summer (reference Bulgari 104002), solid 18k rose gold with a tiger’s eye mosaic dial for fall (reference Bulgari 104003), solid stainless steel with a white mother-of-pearl mosaic dial for winter (reference Bulgari 104004 for short and 104140 for long versions), and two-tone 18k rose gold and stainless steel with a pink mother-of-pearl mosaic dial for spring (reference Bulgari 104007 for short and 104141 for long versions).

All Bulgari Serpenti Tadao Ando watches measure 35mm wide, although if there ever was a case where diameter well and truly made no real-world difference, it would have to be the Serpenti. It is something everyone looking to actually purchase and wear has to try on to see whether they like the way it curves around the wrist. It is a unique effect with various pressure points. The twisted bracelet is a flexible one, you can stretch the whole thing out into almost a straight line — a testament to the brilliance of its architecture and execution. Weight is also a big factor, as it does matter whether a ribbon in solid 18k gold or lighter steel is wrapped around your wrist like a snake around a tree.

The dials are all beautifully constructed either from stone or mother-of-pearl. The Serpenti’s strongly domed dial design adds complexity to the manufacturing process as well as to the final effect where the various little pieces are all at a slightly different angle to follow the curvature of the dial between 12 and 6 o’clock. I, for one, would love to see such an execution on the much wider and flat dials of an Octo Finissimo. Legibility remains good as the sword-shaped hands and large indices are simply polished to stand out against the textured background.

Inside the snake’s head of the Bulgari Serpenti Tadao Ando, you will find a Swiss quartz movement. Bulgari has recently created and launched what was the smallest round mechanical movement available at the time, the Piccolissimo, which measures just 12mm wide, 2.5mm thick, and just 1.30 grams. As addictively unique and refreshing as the Serpenti may be, it is not an everyday watch, and thus a quartz movement makes sense so that it will show the correct time even if a couple of days or more has passed since the last time it was put on.

All in all, I think the Bulgari Serpenti is unique not just for the most obvious reasons — its design, execution, and wearing experience — but also because it sets a standard of excitement and femininity that I have yet to see reflected with masculinity in men’s watches. The Bulgari Serpenti Tadao Ando marquetry dial watches will be launched between Summer 2024 and Spring 2025, with prices ranging between 10,400 Swiss Francs in all-steel and 39,000 in all-gold. You can learn more at the brand’s website.