What makes Bulgari’s watches special
Industrial designer on managing the evolution of Bulgari classics
Previously in the car industry, the dashing Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani switched to designing timepieces when he joined Bulgari Watches Design Center in 2001. The Italian designer noted that the two industries shared similarities — although the intricate mechanics of watchmaking has to fit within a much smaller and more limited space.
Now as the brand’s creative director, Stigliani oversees the designs of both men’s and women’s watches, which require a different approach.
“For men, it’s more about performance, and for women it’s more about aesthetics and emotions,” said Stigliani, who’s based in Neuchatel, Switzerland.
Regarding the women’s models, he has continued to modernise the Serpenti series, which debuted in the late 1940s as a snake-shaped bracelet watch. In the first stylised models, the supple body was of polished yellow gold, either in the flexible bands produced without soldering, also known as Tubogas, or in gold mesh.
Over the years, the iconic timepiece has been reinvented by varying the shape of the case and the dial as well as with the use of different materials.
Launched at Baselworld 2016, redesigns of the classic snake watch include ceramic, five-coil Tubogas, as well as a marriage between high jewellery and haute horlogerie.
“Bulgari is a very unique brand with a rich stylistic and cultural heritage of which I have to carefully manage the evolution of classics like the Serpenti, by playing with pure shapes, geometrical elements and amazing details. We even equipped one model with a horological complication to evolve our icon,” he said.
Stigliani draws i nspiration from various sources although just looking at the Bulgari archive alone gives him many ideas for new designs.
A vintage brooch, for example, inspired Serpenti Incantati (“enchanting snake” in Italian), of which the emblematic creature wraps itself around the case of a round watch instead of coiling around the wrist.
In white or pink gold versions, the 41mm Serpenti Incantati Skeleton Tourbillon combines high jewellery with haute horlogerie, with the reptile literally twining itself around the dial and framing the entirely skeletonised tourbillion calibre.
The daintier 30mm Serpenti Incantati comes in four bejewelled variations matched with either a satin strap or a flexible gem-set bracelet with the snake tail comfortably coiling around the wrist.
Other 2016 reinterpretations of Bulgari’s lucky charm include Serpenti Jewellery, Serpenti Spiga, and Serpenti five-coil Tubogas.
The sparkling Serpenti Jewellery features the head of the snake resting on its tail. Three variations differ in the colour combinations created by diamonds, mother-of-pearl, coral, onyx and turquoise.
Reinventions in white or black hightech ceramic, Serpenti Spiga models have been designed with a diamond- set pink gold bezel, and pink gold bracelet lug and tail that contrast with the contemporary ceramic look.
“The Serpenti Spiga challenged us to make a flexible and articulated Tubogas-type bracelet in ceramic that comfortably wraps the wrist,” Stigliani said. “This further demonstrates how Bulgari has always been innovative in fashioning materials, besides metals.”
Inspired by the shape of 1920s gas carrier pipes, the supple metallic Tubogas bands have always given a modern twist to Bulgari’s jewellery since 1932, and later for watches with a double wraparound bracelet.
One of the new Serpenti Tubogas timepieces has five rows of steel and pink gold coiling that extends from the wrist to inner elbow, with the bracelet described as an adornment that becomes a second skin.
“The DNA allows us to create different Serpenti models to wear for different occasions. We also looked at new ways to wear the snake watches. It can be formal or for fun,” the creative director said.