It has been a remarkable year for watchmakers at Bulgari. The Italian jewellery house has not only launched a special edition collection in partnership with one of the world's most renowned rugby teams - the New Zealand All Blacks - but has worked equally hard on reinterpreting some of its more classic models and updated its line of Serpenti women's watches.
Indeed, since its launch at BaselWorld, the Serpenti collection has become one of the most talked about creations, combining expert jeweller's craftsmanship with detailed enamelling and goldsmithing, underscored by precise Swiss watchmaking techniques.
Inspired by the reptile figure, a symbol of eternal youth and immortality since ancient times, and a motif that has long been considered a Bulgari trademark, the new Serpenti designs feature seven coils that can be wrapped around the wearer's forearm.
Instrumental to the design is the tubogas (tube of gas) construction, most commonly used among jewellers until the 1940s. Bulgari revived the tubogas technique in the 1970s, and has since used it to recreate the brand's trademark watch and jewellery collections.
Its creation requires hours of specialised workmanship, involving the rolling of two long bands of metal around a copper or wood cylinder in such a manner that the edges are aligned to form a single continuous piece without soldering. Such a process makes these metal bands so flexible they are up to five metres in length per coil and, whether in gold or steel, can be wrapped snugly around the arm like a second skin.
Bulgari has deployed this same level of inventiveness in resurrecting the Diagono Calibro 303 Chronograph, a classic model, first launched two decades ago, showcasing to this day a blend of aesthetic and technical expertise.