Review: Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton Power Reserve

What do you get when you cross Italian flamboyance with the world’s most vivacious watch designer? The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Skeleton Power Reserve, of course, and it is quite possibly the most Italian thing you can wear on your wrist.

Before we get to the Octo Finissimo and just how Italian it is on a scale of one to Luciano Pavarotti—spoiler, it’s right up there with the high notes—let’s address just how much it reminds you of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. Sure, the eight sides might be on the inside of the bezel and not the outside, but that angular case, that integrated strap—it’s all very familiar indeed.

I mean, if you were to guess at the origins of the famously outlandish Royal Oak, you’d be pointing your finger firmly in the direction of Europe’s knee-high. So much style, so much presence, all in the name of looking like nothing else you’ve ever seen before, is after all what the Italians are known for best. No one’s ever said the words, “Look how subtle that Lamborghini is!”, and the same is true of the Royal Oak.

So, what gives? The Royal Oak was designed by a Swiss citizen, born and bred; a man named Gérald Genta. Audemars Piguet is a Swiss watchmaker, and the Swiss are known for polite reservation—a far cry from the Royal Oak’s in-your-face attitude. We’ve got the edge laid out; let’s start filling in the gaps on this puzzle.

Audemars Piguet may be Swiss, and Genta may be Swiss—but his father was very much Italian. In fact, it was the racial slurs Genta received from his own teachers that turned him to design in the first place, an escape from the poverty and prejudice in which he grew up. Being that his home, Geneva, was also the home of watchmaking, he focussed his designs on watches, pitching his efforts from brand to brand in the hope to make a crust.

Bvlgari was founded in 1884, Rome, Italy by Sotirios Voulgaris

And it really was just a crust, selling sketches for 20 Swiss francs a time to anyone who’d open the door to him. He was just scraping by, until one day his talents earned the notice of a watchmaker called Universal Genève. Universal Genève was a big name back then, and when it turned a Genta design into reality as the Polerouter, even bigger brands started taking note. I’m talking Omega, IWC, Patek Philippe —and of course Audemars Piguet.

Genta’s avant-garde approach to watch design, that Italian blood that had been derided at school, was now the hottest ticket in town. His work defined the industry for a decade, helped save the mechanical watch from what should have been its high-tech replacement, quartz—and most importantly for Genta, elevated him from poverty. Now he dressed in Italian cashmere, drove a Ferrari, consulted with Italian brands—including, you guessed it, Bulgari.

It was the watch that first made people take Bulgari seriously as a watchmaker—the watch simply called the Bulgari. The uncomplicated case, emblazoned with the Bulgari script around its bezel, was a departure for Genta, but that didn’t stop his personal exploration of that trademark octagonal theme. He produced many incredible watches under his own name, like grand sonneries, tourbillons, Westminster chimes—and even a Mickey Mouse watch.

One of those Gérald Genta-branded watches was called the Octo, and it was the most aggressive, most angular form his octagonal obsession had taken yet. Think of it as the Reventón to the Murciélago, a fighter jet to a Learjet; and when Genta passed away in August of 2011, it was Bulgari—who’d owned Genta’s company since 1999—that decided to let that legacy live on.

Bvlgari is a brand known for it's fine jewellery and incredible watches

As with all good Italian design, the Octo Finissimo Skeleton Power Reserve is a feast for the eyes. Genta’s original lines are preserved impeccably, Bulgari not daring to change the form the great man chose to bestow upon the watch back in the mid-2000s. But although the Bulgari Bulgari might have been a simple watch, an interpretation of the Bulgari brand by Genta, the Octo must be something more to honour the legacy Genta left behind in 2011.

That’s why the Octo Finissimo carries so much impact on so many different levels: visually, technically and physically. From the visual standpoint, it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, even if you are familiar with Genta’s original Octo. The bead-blasted titanium makes the harsh edges seem even more so, the buttresses of a miniature fortress rather than the sculpture of a timepiece.

But that’s not the only visual shock, because what might first appear to be an aggressively thick watch is anything but. Despite a sapphire crystal front and rear, despite a 65-hour power reserve, despite the case having more steps than Machu Picchu—it’s just 5.37mm thick. Or should I say, thin.

And that brings us on to the technical impact, because it’s the technicality of the calibre BVL 128SK, a wafer at just 2.35mm, that gives the watch its extraordinary proportions. But that’s not its only party trick, because this hand wound ticker doesn’t so much get a splash of Italian flair as a complete dunking by opening that movement up from the inside out.

Bvlgari over the years have introduced several record-breaking moments. This includes the worlds thinnest minute repeater and automatic tourbillon

It’s all there on show like the V12 in the back of an Enzo, mechanical chaos. But despite that chaos, no surface has been left unresolved, graining, polishing and bevelling abounding as it should in true high-watchmaking fashion. Even if you try to sneak a glance between the front and rear plates, you’ll notice they’ve been circular grained too. There’s a lot riding on this watch, and there’s no cutting corners.

As for the physical element of the watch: its titanium build and hollowed, ultra-thin movement make what appears to have so much heft feel like almost nothing at all. It’s a unique experience to see something so striking yet feel like something else entirely. It gives the Octo an unmistakable presence even when you’re not actually looking at it.

Only something properly Italian could be such a sensory experience. It’s not subtle, it’s not demure and at £18,800, it’s certainly not cheap—but when has that been anything anyone ever wanted from Italian design? The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak was a sucker punch to Swiss watchmaking as it was, Italian influence bleeding into the reserved traditions of centuries—but the Bulgari Octo Finissimo? It’s an Italian thoroughbred, through and through.

It’s a bit of a perfect storm, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo, really. That Bulgari sought to continue the line in the way that it has—and even at all—means that we get to see and enjoy Genta’s final take on the eight-sided shape that transported him from famished to famous. And it’s been done so sympathetically, sensitively, and in the most Italian way possible. Genta may have been abused for his Italian heritage when he was younger—the Octo Finissimo, however, completely embraces it.

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