PRE-BASEL: Hands-on with the Bulgari Octo Blue

First Impressions:

Slipping the gleaming Bulgari Octo onto your wrist you can’t help but draw comparisons to the Royal Oak and the Nautilus. And there’s a good reason for that.

You never know what you’re going to get when a jewellery brand starts pushing their watch collections. Too often you get poorly conceived and conservative designs that serve as little more than a stop-gap. Sometimes you get a more pleasant surprise. In recent years Bulgari has been surprising.

Last year the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon was critically acclaimed – for the lifestyle brand to achieve the thinnest tourbillon on record (with a movement 1.95mm thick) turned heads and raised eyebrows.

The Octo line is Bulgari’s most impressive and distinctive men’s design. Yet it didn’t start life with Bulgari on the dial. The Octo was the brainchild of legendary watch designer Gerald Genta, and it was originally the mainstay watch of Genta’s own brand, which was acquired by Bulgari in 1999. Anyone with a passing familiarity with Genta’s other iconic designs (such as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus) will see similarities in the multifaceted, octagonal case design. It’s a very bold watch, but one that was always overshadowed by Genta’s more famous designs. It’s good to see it get a fresh lease of life under the Bulgari name.

This year at Baselworld, we’ll see a slick new addition to the three-hand and date Octo. While the (truly excellent) multifaceted, angular 38mm case and beautiful integrated bracelet stay unchanged, as has the in-house BVL-191 movement, Bulgari has added a sapphire blue dial. This dial, depending on the light, appears either jet black or bright blue. It’s the perfect choice for a watch that is already full of the dramatic play of light and shape, and a better option than the gloss black or white dials that are currently available.

All the elements are present for the Octo to be a serious hit for Bulgari. It’s a Genta design, which means it has one of the best lineages in the business. With the backing and support of parent company LVMH there are no limitations on where the Octo could go as a product. And Bulgari, as a relative outsider in the watch world, is well placed to continue confounding consumer expectations. The Bulgari Octo is one to watch.

Bulgari Octo Blue Australian pricing:

The Octo on steel bracelet will have an RRP of $8900 AUD.