Bulgari Sets A New Record (Again) For The World's Thinnest Watch With The New Octo Finissimo Ultra

2024-04-09

I remember it like it was just yesterday. Richard Mille came out absolutely nowhere delivering a watch in partnership with Ferrari that snatched the throne as the world's thinnest watch, beating out the then-recently (like four months recently) released Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra by a mere 0.05mm.

We wrote pretty extensively about the Bulgari upon its release in March 2022, especially considering it not only held the thinness record at the time, but also featured a QR code for an NFT (remember those?) on the dial. The Ferrari then came roaring in with the new record and an engineering achievement, having built the movement into the case rather than going the route Bulgari went, using the caseback as a mainplate for the movement. And so, since July 2022, RM has held the record. That changes today.

The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra returns and is thinner than ever – literally. As of today, the new Ultra boasts a thickness of 1.7mm, beating the RM by another .05mm. And just like RM delivered its record-setting watch with a bit of flare via the architecture, here Bulgari is raising the stakes by COSC-certifying the new Ultra, thereby making it not just the thinnest watch ever made, but also the thinnest chronometer-certified watch ever made. By my count, that's two records (though I am not sure anyone was waiting on the latter).

Of course, this should come as no surprise, as the attainment of records has been core to the Octo Finissimo line since its creation and has been a key factor in its meteoric rise as a collection that now stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of AP and Patek in its class (integrated bracelet sports watches).

And no matter where you stand on the need to have these records or their importance in the larger scheme of things, you can't deny the fact that Bulgari and Octo Finissimo achieved records for the thinnest tourbillon, minute repeater, self-winding watch, self-winding tourbillon, chronograph GMT, tourbillon chronograph, and perpetual calendar.

And while they may have lost the throne for the thinnest watch, full stop, for a brief period, the brand is back on top. And can add a "COSC-certified" wristwatch" to the above list. So now we know the new Ultra is the standard by which all thin watches (and thin chronometers) are to be measured. What about the watch itself? Well first off, for a complete breakdown of the original Ultra, much of which applies to this watch, I implore you to give this histroy a read.

Bulgari

Of course, the high-level points are the titanium case and the use of the caseback as a mainplate for the movement. And that caseback needed to be made of an especially hard and dense material: tungsten carbide. One hundred and seventy components of this manually wound movement are assembled and built into the watch. On the previous Ultra, as noted above, there was a QR code on the ratchet, which has now been changed to a Datamatrix, allowing the owner to experience the full details of the Ultra through photo, video, and advanced data.

Making this a COSC-certified movement added complexity to the assembly and construction of this ultra-thin watch but the caseback, used in the previous iteration, still provided enough stability for the now thinner watch. And that's because it was not the movement or the architecture that served as the area where the new thinness was achieved.

Reprinted from Hodinkee

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