BULGARI OCTO FINISSIMO TOURBILLON

By introducing the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon, Bulgari has reached a new milestone in the development of ultra-thin watches with a major complication: its 1.95-mm-thick movement makes this flying tourbillon simply the slimmest on the market. As a member of the iconic Octo family, Octo Finissimo Tourbillon embodies the expression of Italian genius and the best of Swiss watchmaking expertise, yielding a bundle of inventive solutions.

This house movement is thinner than a Swiss five-franc coin, and right from the start, its design had to incorporate several solutions to reduce the overall thickness. The starting point was the tourbillon cage, a decisive factor in the construction process. It is 1.95 mm thick, a fact that shaped the rest of the structure. Once incorporated into the plate, the cage determined the thickness of the entire movement. The overall architecture also includes two bridges, one for the minute wheel and the other for the gear train of the tourbillon cage, which rotates once a minute.

In seeking to make the thinnest possible movement, various solutions were devised. The first was the use of ball bearings for the moving parts: seven ball bearings are positioned on the basic movement, while the tourbillon cage has a cartridge bearing that allows it to pivot. The final ball bearing lets the escape wheel pivot. Next, the regulator assembly was eliminated, since timing is now adjusted on the balance wheel directly, which also helped make the movement even thinner. The barrel is kept in position and guided by three ball bearings on its periphery. This solution allowed the height of its spring to be doubled, yielding a significant power reserve approaching 55 hours.

The Finissimo Tourbillon calibre has 249 components and its finishes are completely in keeping with its exceptional nature, down to the last detail: the plate and bridges are bevelled and decorated with Côtes de Genève, the gears are bevelled and circular satin-brushed, screw heads and slots are bevelled and the ends are polished. The calibre, which displays the hours and minutes on a black dial, is lacquered and polished with great simplicity, and fits within a platinum case 40 mm in diameter, which extends into a black alligator strap with a platinum buckle. Without exaggerating the achievement, the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon represents a big step forward in the ongoing quest for thin watch complications.

Technical details
Model: Octo Finissimo Tourbillon

Movement
Finissimo Tourbillon calibre, Manufacture-made ultra-thin hand-wound flying Tourbillon movement performing one turn/minute
The thinnest ever made at just 1.95 thick
Total thickness of the watch: 5.00 mm
Fitting diameter: 32.00 mm; total diameter: 32.60 mm; 14.5 lignes
249 parts, frequency of 21,600 vph (3Hz)
Tourbillon carriage: 1.95 mm thick, mounted on a peripherally-driven ultra-thin ball-bearing mechanism
Variable-inertia balance requiring no index-assembly
Approx. 55-hour power reserve
High-end finishing: bevelling, Côtes de Genève

Case, dial and strap
Platinum case, 40 mm in diameter
Polished black lacquered dial
Black alligator leather strap