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After visiting the Bvlgari High Horology Manufacture in Switzerland this year, it was about time we reviewed one of their iconic pieces, so I’ve chosen the Octo Finissimo to wear for the week.

This year is probably one of the first times that I have really delved into the world of Bvlgari. Yes, I’ve tried on their watches and seen all the new releases, but I’ve not had the chance to dive into the brand – until this year. Luckily, we had the chance to visit the High Watchmaking Manufacture in Le Sentier back in April to see just one of the manufacturing arms of Bvlgari (they have three across Switzerland where different components are made), in this instance, as the name suggests, the Bvlgari Haute Horlogerie is where the most complicated watches are made, such as their ultra thin movements, minute repeaters, tourbillons, or in Bvlgari’s instance, all of these in one in some cases.

So when we were back in Australia, we decided we should get our hands on a few pieces to review and see how they wore and what people gravitate towards in terms of the designs. After all, Bvlgari is known for making bold watches that have their own design language and are not like many others out there, thanks to the work of Fabrizio Buonnamassa Stigliani – Bvlgari’s famed head of design. Side note, we caught up with him as well during Watches & Wonders this year, so stay tuned for that interview shortly. Sam has already reviewed the Octo Roma Chronograph, so now, my turn with the very recognisable and now iconic Octo Finissimo…

First Impressions

The Bvlgari Octo Finissimo has always fascinated me as it is one watch that I haven’t had a lot of hands-on time with. They are very unique in the sense of their design; it is not something that you come across every day in the wild. Just the way the case and bracelet are shaped and stepped gives the Octo Finissimo such a unique look compared to the rest. The one thing that you immediately notice is just how thin this watch is and the fact that it wears more like a cuff or bracelet than it does a watch. A design element done on purpose.

The bracelet has great light play with the combination of the interconnecting, brushed and polished links, and for lack of a better word, is kind of slinky around the wrist. The look of the case and bezel with different layers is a bold design choice, but when you meet Bvlgari’s head of design, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, you can completely understand why this is the case. On first wear, it feels quite comfortable, mostly due to the fact that the case is so thin, it sits flat on your wrist, and the bracelet does conform around the wrist well.

When you look at the movement through the case back, you can see the beautiful way Bvlgari has decorated the bridges with Geneva stripes, and that small micro-rotor that delivers the power to the BVL138 calibre. I breifly spoke about the experience we had when we went to the Manufacture in Switzerland earlier in the year, so it is great to now have one of these timepieces make their to my wrist.

The Design

Ok, where do I start? The design of the Octo Finissimo is really like no other watch. And I think this is kind of the point with these. Fabrizio has taken the style of the Roma, which you can see in the eight-sided bezel design, but then incorporated this with a very angular and square case shape, which changes the look of what would have been a Roma into this piece. The multi-step case gives this thin watch a lot of dimensionality that most other watches don’t have. From the way, the angled and polished lugs join with the main case, which is then stepped again into a multifaceted bezel works really well. Without this, I feel, the watch could just look like a large flat piece of metal on the wrist. In this sense, the design draws your eye to the dial and somehow gives you the sense of a more rounded watch versus a very flat square watch.

Bvlgari has kept the dial fairly minimalistic with just the numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock and the polished hands and hour markers that offset the matte black dial. However, I am glad that Bvlgari has added the small running seconds at the 7:30 position, as this breaks up the dial’s minimalism a little and adds that extra touch of finesse.

The bracelet design has been done extremely well, as you have these small linking elements that are brushed on the larger main links, and high polish on the smaller inner links. Once again, this gives the watch more dimensionality than it would have otherwise, not to mention the fact that it plays well with light. It makes doing wrist rolls with this piece just that little bit more fun! Bvlgari has opted for a folding butterfly friction clasp with this piece, and while it works relatively well, it does not allow for any small micro-adjustments, which I will discuss later in my wearing experience.

When you see the way Fabrizio starts to design the watches, especially the Octo Finissimo, you start to understand where that slight element of crazy genius comes into play. When we caught up with him at Watches & Wonders this year, you can tell that his eye for design is so honed in, and the way he thinks is all about both the look of the watch and also the wearing experience. He can sketch these out almost with his eyes closed, and while the lines may look a little bit all over the page, once he’s done, the watch almost comes to life in sketch form.

The one thing that I found, having this piece on for the last week, is that you notice all these small design elements and intricacies of the watch, the more you wear it. And it’s kind of hard to explain writing this down, it’s one of those pieces that you need to wear to fully appreciate the watch for what it is. And it is not just one thing in this watch. It is a combination of all the elements put together. The brushing on the outer bezel that is effectively a Sunray brush which would stem from what would be the centre, offsets the directional brushing that lines up with all the angles of the case, and this again contrasts with the high polish along certain edges – not to mention the integration of the bracelet with its vertical brushing and high polish as well. It is a watch with many facets, both literally and figuratively.

How It Wears

The large flat case sits flat on the wrist and, without being too tight, has minimal movement thanks to the design. As I said previously, the feeling you get when you are wearing the watch is that of a jewellery-style cuff rather than a watch itself. The fact that the case is quite thin, only a mere 6.4mm, makes a difference, and this thinness seems to follow into the bracelet as well, giving you a consistent feel of the watch around the entire wrist. Admittedly, at first I wasn’t sure about the wider bracelet compared to other watches, but after a day or so, you do get used to it, and it feels at home on the wrist as this is exactly how it is designed. The added taper helps with this as well, and gives the watch a good balance. I will mention that, as this is a 40mm diameter watch, but square, the shape may not suit all wrist sizes or shapes. I have a flatter wrist, and not small, so it works well. If your wrist is on the rounder side, or a lot smaller, then I’d possibly think about this a little more and really try it on in person.

Wearing this piece around for a week really gave me a good sense of what it would be like to own the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo and how it adapts to my ever-fluctuating wrist size. It’s currently wintertime time so my wrist is somewhat smaller. However, if I’ve been inside and wearing a jumper or have just got back from the gym and I’m a bit hotter, my wrist will swell a little more. This means sizing the watch, like most integrated bracelets with a butterfly clasp, gets a little tricky for my wrist. Now, this is not so much a problem with the watch; it’s more of a problem that I encounter with any watch that has an integrated bracelet, or a bracelet that doesn’t have any micro-adjustment on it. When my wrist size matches the size of the bracelet, the watch wears like a dream.

Depending on the brand, I find it incredibly hard to get the exact fit, so it is not too loose when my wrist is at its smallest and not too tight when at its largest. If you are like me, then this is maybe something you need to take into consideration, not just for the Bvlgari, but for integrated sports watches in general. This small personal issue aside, I found that most days it fitted perfectly and was nice and comfortable, primarily because of its thickness, the design, and lack of being a heavy watch.

Reading the time on the watch is easy, as you have high-polished indices and hands which gleam against a matte black dial. However, there is no luminescence on this watch, so it isn’t a piece you can wear at night if you want to see the time in the dark. But I feel that it isn’t meant to be this type of watch at all. It is not your traditional tool watch, in fact, it is not a tool watch in any sense, this is a watch that you wear for style and the looks, so it is less about the functionality you would get with a dive watch or chronograph, and more about the way this piece looks and feels on the wrist during the day.

Because of its unique design, it is a watch that you can pretty much wear with almost any attire. Dressed casually, it fits as it takes on those sports watch vibes, being an integrated bracelet and all steel. Put on a suit and show it with cuffs, and it becomes a lot more dressy. In this sense, it is somewhat of a chameleon, but in a good way! Below, I’ve illustrated this with my more casual attire vs Champs’ more dressier look.

The Movement

Inside the watch is the calibre BVL138, which is Bvlgari’s go-to thin calibre found in these pieces. The way they have designed the movement is quite cool. We saw this first hand at the Manufacture in Le Sentier. The use of the micro-rotor to deliver the power to the barrel allows for added space for the other movement components, which you need in a thin movement like the BVL138. By flattening out a lot of the elements and making them wider than what you would normally find in a conventional movement allows the watch to maintain it thinness. It also allows for Bvlgari to show off the movement and its decoration with the Geneva stripes on the bridges and the perlage on the base plate under the micro-rotor.

The BVL138 is an automatic winding calibre that is 2.23mm thick, and thanks to the platinum micro-rotor that winds the main spring in the barrel, you get 60 hours of power reserve. The watch beats at 21,600 VpH, or 3Hz, which assists with the power reserve. If it had a higher frequency, then you would sacrifice the power reserve, but increase the accuracy without needing to regulate it as much. The Ocot Finissimo is also 100m water resistant, and it does have a screw down crown, so this is a swimable watch in every sense. Great for those who want to wear it from the pool to dinner to the boardroom.

Final Thoughts

After trying on and wearing so many watches over the past few years, you do get a little blasé about watches in general. It’s not that you take them for granted, although you might, in my case, it’s more about the excitement of a watch. The more and more you are exposed to them, the harder it is to be excited about a piece. Talking with many collectors over the years, this is a sentiment that you hear from those seasoned collectors who have built up a decent collection. As I said, at the start of this, the Octo Finissimo is one watch that I didn’t have a lot of experience with, and because it is a little different to your standard watches, I was quite looking forward to wearing this piece and getting to know it.

So, what do I think after having this on the wrist for a period of time? my short analysis is; it’s a cool piece and something that’s different – something that I would not normally gravitate to wear, but for me, this is actually a good thing as it breaks me out of my comfort zone to a certain extent and gives me the chance to try to piece that may not be quite up everyone’s alley.

Having been to the Manufacture in Switzerland, I had the opportunity to try on some extraordinary Bvlgari pieces, like the chiming minute repeater tourbillons, and also this year, one of the standouts at Watches & Wonders, the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon, which re-takes the mantle of the thinnest tourbillon watch in the world. When you have a piece like this on your wrist, you start to think, “maybe it is time for something a little bit different to the standard sports watches I wear normally!”

But this also got me thinking about this piece specifically. Would I want to purchase the Octo Finissiom that I have on, or would I prefer to go a couple of steps further and get this piece, but in the carbon or skeleton versions? This is clearly a money issue, though, as those pieces then step up again in value. And this is a quandary I have been pondering for a couple of days. If you want to wear something a little bit different and left of centre, do you do it just a little or a whole lot? Or maybe the better way to look at it is this. You start off with a piece like the Octo Finissimo, and once bitten by the bug, you can then expand your collection to some more haute horlogerie pieces.

Casting all those thoughts aside just for a moment, and coming back to the watch in question, I’ve enjoyed wearing this piece as it’s giving me a taste for something that’s not “the norm”. It’s allowed me to enjoy a very different-looking watch, but one that wears very well and comfortably on the wrist. I’ve mentioned this a couple of times over the last few articles, but, as I’ve gotten older and more into the watch world, my tastes have changed a little bit, especially when it comes to the size of watches. Gone are the days of those large pieces I used to love. These days it is more about comfort and wearability (plus how it looks, of course). If you had asked me two years ago whether I loved thin watches, my answer would’ve been a resounding no. However, fast-forward to 2025, and my appreciation for them has grown a lot more. For this reason, I think there is room in any collection for thin and ultrathin watches, just as there is space for those bigger sports watches as well. Could I see myself wearing this long-term? Most probably. But knowing myself, if I did get a piece such as this, I think I would be yearning to go that extra step or two and get something just a little bit crazier. As they say, with more money comes more problems, and thankfully, not a problem I have at this point. But should I have the ability to adjust my budget, then it is something that I will need to consider!

Reference: 103297

Specifications:

• Dimensions: 40mm x 46mm lug-to-lug x 6.4mm thick
• Case Material: Brushed and polished stainless steel case
• Dial: Black matte dial with rhodium-plated indexes. Small seconds at 7:30
• Crystal: Flat sapphire crystal
• Movement: Automatic Calibre BVL138 ultra-thin beating at 21,600 VpH / 3Hz
• Power Reserve: 60hrs
• Water Resistance: 100m (10bar)
• Bracelet: Satin finished and polished stainless steel with double folding friction clasp

Australian RRP: A$22,400

Availability: Available now through Bvlgari boutiques, retailers and online at Bvlgari.com

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