Two of the more prominent and active designers of the modern watch industry, Fabrizio Buonamassa of Bulgari, and Maximilian Büsser of MB&F, have teamed up to reinterpret the Italian-Swiss brand’s staple: the Serpenti. Into what? Well, a number things, some beyond the obvious. To find out, read on about the Bulgari MB&F Serpenti watch — officially styled as the Bvlgari x MB&F Serpenti.
Büsser and Buonamassa have been heavily involved with watch design and conception for a quarter of a century each. The former established MB&F after his tenure at Harry Winston where he created the pioneering Opus series of ultra-high-end watches, while the latter joined Bulgari in 2001, following a short stint at Fiat in Turin. Büsser tore up the rulebook on case shapes and wearability, and he has transformed some of the wildest concepts into successful Horological Machines. By contrast, Buonamassa took on the challenge of writing the next chapter of Bulgari’s long and elaborate history, but not without the courage to reinterpret many of its definitive design codes.
Books could be written on the limited editions of both brands — at this point, MB&F has produced so many that even we have probably forgotten a handful. Likewise, Bulgari has dozens of iterations of its record-breaking Octo Finissimo watches accompanied by seldom-seen pièce uniques. It would be daft to question the contributions of these two gentlemen to modern watch design. Now, whether one likes bedazzled, frog-inspired Horological Machines, or sapphire-clad, colosseum-like timepieces is a much more subjective matter.
The Bulgari MB&F Serpenti is not the first time the two have collaborated — we saw the MB&F Bulgari LM FlyingT Allegra in 2021 — but it is the first that I presume we could call a men’s watch, and if not that, then at least a piece with a more universal appeal than the colorful, gem-set, fragile-looking piece of art that the Allegra was. But if we were to call this piece (also) for men, then is it the first Serpenti that we could reasonably expect to see out and about on men’s wrists? Probably.
It is funny how in recent years (many years), I saw aBlogtoWatch team members as well as fellow journalists from other publications try on the Serpenti with its Tubogas bracelet and plead to the brand for a men’s version. Well, the Bulgari MB&F Serpenti is not a 1:1 interpretation of the Serpenti into a men’s watch, but it does take plenty of cues from that fascinating horological and jewelry icon. “And which Serpenti?” I hear you ask since there are many. I’d wager that it is the more high-end version, the Serpenti Misteriosi, whose serpent-like head served as the inspiration for this collaboration.
Bulgari claims it took hundreds of sketches and dozens of 3D-printed models to end up with this current shape and repackage the small jewelry watch case into a large watch head that could encapsulate an MB&F movement creation with its now-trademark suspended balance wheel that we first saw on the Legacy Machine 1 over a decade ago. It is interesting to see how this rather special mechanical exercise is overpowered by the rest of the Serpenti.
The Bulgari x MB&F Serpenti case is all about curves, “combined together to create a machining nightmare.” The duo explains: “The complex curves extend beyond the metal of the case to the five sapphire crystals, including the snake’s eyes and the multi-faceted rear section — all treated with anti-reflective coating on both sides and providing large openings on the movement.” Büsser adds: “the biomorphic design of this watch created enormous challenges (…). The intricate case is entirely machined with 5-axis 3D mills and holds the five sapphire crystals which were not only extremely complicated to make but equally challenging to fit due to the curved nature of the case and the desire for a water resistance of 30 meters.” What you see above looks like a bespoke tool designed to apply pressure to the various sapphire windows while they are being fixed to the case.
Now, we mentioned in the intro that the Serpenti has been reinterpreted into “a number of things, some beyond the obvious.” The press release offers a small hint those who are more familiar with Buonamassa and Büsser will pick up on: “Like an automobile, the view is radically different depending on whether you admire it from the front, the side, the top, the back… and all those views must be equally satisfying.” What is perhaps the most radical new take here is that the Bulgari MB&F Serpenti watch was purposely designed, at least in part, with distinctive automotive touches.
If you look at some of these sketches by Buonamassa — who, in his free time, produces exceptional car sketches and shares their timelapse videos on his personal Instagram — they look a lot like car drawings (or the Millennium Falcon to the right). Büsser also had the world of cars as his calling, as he told the Naked Watchmaker: “[As a child I wanted to be] a car designer. From 4 to 18 I sketched and drew cars all the time. It was my calling. When I turned 18 and finished school, the Pasadena Art Center College of Design (THE most famous car design college in the world) opened its European campus in Switzerland 20 minutes from where we lived. It was insanely expensive and my parents did not have the means, but they told me they would try to find the money for it. I did not feel I could ask them for that sacrifice, so I did a master’s in micro-technology engineering instead. And found watchmaking during that tenure…”
For a lifelong car enthusiast, it will take but a glance at the picture above to see ’60s car design all over it — and not just from the little conspicuous use of a windscreen, side windows, and a louvered rear window, but also from the use of curves and shapes once deemed aerodynamic in car design. The Serpenti, and I never thought I would say this, obviously mimics a mid-engine car with a short nose, forward-pushed cabin, and an engine bay preceding the rear wheels. It was not easy to find just one car and just one picture that could convey the inter-disciplinary approach that these two die-hard car fanatics had when redesigning the Serpenti, but I think I succeeded with that Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale Prototipo (with its colors modified to match that of the watch on the picture). Frankly, at this point, I think Büsser and Buonamassa should just simply design a fully car-inspired watch, maybe a successor to the Horological Machine 5.
Even the movement itself features engine-like design elements, with the two grooved, ink-filled components that look distinctly like valve covers used on prettier internal combustion engines, or the grill-like component at the tail end of the caliber with a hexagonal pattern taken from previous Serpenti watches. The Bulgari MB&F Serpenti watches are powered by a self-winding in-house movement with a 14mm balance wheel, 45-hour power reserve, and two aluminum domes to display the hours and minutes and a power reserve display at the back.
This special Serpenti watch is referred to as a 39mm wide watch. Thankfully, its full measurements have been provided along with wrist shots to paint a more complete picture: It measures 53mm (lug-to-lug), 39mm diagonally, and 18mm thick. While it certainly is no Octo Finissimo, the Bulgari MB&F Serpenti looks like a beautifully wearable watch not just by Horological Machine standards, but full-stop. I, for one, look forward to putting one on.
The Bvlgari x MB&F Serpenti watch comes in three variations: in titanium, in stainless steel and black PVD, and rose gold, limited to 33 pieces each. The Bulgari MB&F Serpenti in titanium is priced at $148,000 USD, as is the stainless steel black PVD version, while the 18k rose gold variant costs $170,000 USD. Visit the brand’s website to learn more.
