Three incredible and incredibly complicated Bulgari Octo chiming watches make their debut at the 2024 Geneva Watch Days event. In their own unique ways, each reflects Bulgari’s extraordinary mastery of mechanical and jewelry craftsmanship, fusing the best of Swiss watchmaking expertise and Italian aesthetics. From the rare skill of its artisans and master watchmakers emerge these bold creations with timeless elegance. Virtuoso in its approach, the manufacture with a deeply Roman soul pushes the boundaries of its art beyond the imaginable.

A duo, a trio, and a quartet — Bulgari composes a horological symphony, adding harmonic complexity to its comprehensive range of chiming timepieces. Whether they chime on two, three, or four gongs, repeat the minutes, or automatically indicate the passing of the hours, the new Octo Roma watches play tritone intervals, created by Bulgari in collaboration with the Italian-Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti.

The musicality of these chiming watches is based on a new musical interval that challenges the canon.

The Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon and Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon reinvent Bulgari’s soundscapes. The musicality of these chiming watches is based on a new musical interval that challenges the canon: The tritone harmonic interval. Applying this unprecedented dissonance in acoustic watches gives them a unique tonal quality. As a brand rooted in Roman culture, in antiquity but also in the Baroque period, Bulgari ventures into a realm that, while not bound by the conventions of musical harmony, forms an integral part of classical music.

Translating this approach into the language of wheels, gears, cams, and snails is how Bulgari’s longstanding in-house mastery of ultra-high-end chiming watches comes into play. See here for a unique look inside Bulgari’s very own Grande Sonnerie Atelier. In essence, Bulgari’s expertise in horological acoustics is unmatched. The brand stands alone in consistently producing all three types of chiming wristwatches in series, and its comprehensive repertoire is built on the exceptional skills of expert watchmakers in this rarefied domain. Chosen to present the fruits of its most remarkable undertaking to date is the iconic Octo Roma case, the reference for Bulgari’s grand complications.

Deliberate and disruptive, the chime of the Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie touches the soul. The most complex watch ever created by Bulgari, it takes the queen of complications in watchmaking, the minute repeater, to extreme heights of complexity and refinement. Not two or three, but four hammers mark time with a tune composed by conductor Lorenzo Viotti. This horological marvel, equipped with an innovative openworked metal dial, reinvents the melody of gongs by adding the ‘tritone,’ a characteristic interval of classical music.

The tritone is an interval with a notorious role in music history, also known as the augmented fourth or the diminished fifth. This creative and disruptive take on the tonal scale is the result of the collaboration between Bvlgari and conductor Lorenzo Viotti. At just 34 years old, this Lausanne native currently leads the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, and the Dutch National Opera. “The tritone, often referred to as the ‘Devil’s Interval,’ spans six semitones or three whole tones,” explains Lorenzo Viotti. “It divides the octave in half and brings dissonance and tension.”

The most complicated of the trio: The Bulgari Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon (103962).

With a minute repeater on two tones, a carillon on three, and a grande and petite sonnerie on four tones, the Bulgari Manufacture in Le Sentier has mastered the gamut of chiming horological instruments. In grande sonnerie mode, the BVV 800 caliber of the Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon automatically chimes the hours and quarters as they pass and repeats the hour every hour. That represents the ultimate challenge in the rarefied world of chiming watches, made all the more complicated by the use of four gongs and hammers. As a minute repeater, it can also repeat the hours, quarters, and minutes on demand.

The Bulgari Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie is presented in a 45mm wide case crafted from satin-polished titanium, measuring a remarkably slender 11.85mm thick — as further testament to the brand’s exceptional expertise in shaving millimeters off movements and their habillage. An openworked dial in grey DLC-treated brass reveals the tourbillon, the four gongs — two overlapping — and the governor that, as its name implies, governs the tempo of the chiming functions. The Bulgari Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie is priced at €1,000,000 EUR.

The Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon with three hammers — two traditionally large, and a smaller one closest to the 12 o’clock marker.

The Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon joins the aforementioned reference in presenting this distinctive soundscape as it chimes the hours, quarters, and minutes — striking the quarters on three notes thanks to the modified BVL428 caliber’s carillon. While everything in their design is harmonious and composed with careful symmetry, their distinctive sound creates an intriguing aural contrast. “The purpose of this combination of notes is primarily the dissonance, the tension created by the tritone,” explains Lorenzo Viotti. “It strongly contrasts with the modern preference for consonant harmonic intervals. In medieval symbolism, certain chords were linked to spiritual concepts. The tritone was considered disturbing, and due to its asymmetry, contrary to the religious canon of reflecting divine harmony – hence the nickname associating it with the devil’s workings.”

The crystalline clarity and generous richness of the notes emanating from the Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon stem from two extremely complex mechanisms, visible as a dual ballet on the dial side: The tourbillon and the minute repeater with three hammers, rendering the time at will. The hand-wound, 75-hour BVL 428 manufacture caliber is presented in a 44mm wide satin-polished rose gold case that is 12.60mm thick, with a rose gold pusher set into the 9 o’clock profile to allow the wearer to initiate the three-gong carillon chime. The audiovisual experience — as the three hammers strike their respective gongs — is one unlike any other. The Bulgari Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon is priced at €380,000 EUR.

Complementing the two aforementioned chiming timepieces, Bulgari reintroduces the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater in full carbon, a high-tech musical instrument that holds the record as the thinnest chiming watch ever created. A feat of absolute finesse and harmony in music and engineering, the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater Carbon combines the inimitable Octo Finissimo design with an extraordinarily complex minute repeater caliber that chimes the hours, quarters, and minutes on demand.

Just as violins and pianos have long transcended their wooden origins to incorporate more technical and radical materials, Bulgari has taken its chiming watches into new material realms. The Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon is crafted from titanium, the Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon from rose gold, and the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater from multi-layered CTP (Carbon Thin Ply), which is both ultra-lightweight and rigid.

As Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari’s Executive Director of Product Creation explains: “The ability to resonate and extract the rich tonal nuances of major and minor chords from these three materials is just one aspect of the versatility that has been achieved.” Just as Lorenzo Viotti artfully conducts Brahms, Wagner, or Dvořák, Bulgari masters the interplay of materials, techniques, and emotions into a sound that is now its signature.

The record-setting 3.12mm thick BVL 362 manufacture caliber is housed inside a 40mm wide and just 6.85mm thick carbon case matched to a uniquely constructed carbon bracelet. The pusher at 9 o’clock and the crown are crafted from titanium, while the dial is in openworked carbon, all as a nod to the ultra-lightweight construction of this singular exercise in watchmaking history. The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater is priced at €255,000 EUR.

Crafted with an all-encompassing boldness unique to the manufacture, these three new chiming watches from Bulgari also underline the Swiss-Italian brand’s unique expertise in the world of ultra-high-end mechanical watchmaking. From ultra-thin to ultra-complicated, it is in Bulgari’s Le Sentier atelier that the universe of chiming watches continues to expand at an incredible pace. To learn more, visit the brand’s website.

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