While few people consider the principle factor of a mechanical watch is for it to be as thin as possible, the contest to create the world’s most slender watch is one that has been hotly contested over the past decade or so. The storied Roman brand, Bulgari has long dominated proceedings with the introduction of it now-famous Octo Finissimo collection – however it has previously been unseated by Piaget’s ultra-thin Altipiano (2mm thick), and last year by Richard Mille’s implausibly slim RM UP-01 Ferrari (1.75mm). Clearly, not content with conceding the title of World Thinnest Mechanical Watch, Bulgari has gone and released a new version of the Octo Finissimo that measures just 1.7mm thick.
Why the obsession with ultra-thin watches? The truth is, making ultra thin watches is much more than just what it looks like, it is a showcase of elite levels of high-end mechanical watchmaking. It demonstrates how a watchmaker can create that level of technical intricacy on a dial that is as thin as a One Dirham coin. In short, it’s a watchmaking flex.
The new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC pips the Richard Mille by 0.05 millimeters, with its 40mm (diametre) case containing a staggering 170-component manually wound movement with a tungsten carbide back for much-needed durability on such a slender piece.
The Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC, like its predecessors, is a super refined dress watch that really thinks it’s a sports watch. And to make it, Bulgari toyed with the conventions of (very) high watchmaking by executing impossibly refined watches in modern sporty materials. The watch is just 1.7mm thick and is made in grade 5 micro-sandblasted titanium.
At Bulgari, thinking against the grain of conventional refinements in high watchmaking, and ditching posh, heavy metals like platinum and gold to make a watch that is both impossibly thin and impossibly light, is a great way to turn heads in the very rarified watch world.