The new Bulgari Octo Grande Sonnerie Perpetual Calendar is one of the Italian watchmaker-come-jeweller’s most complicated pieces to date, making up for it’s chunkiness (in comparison to the record-breaking Finissimos at least) with some serious haute horology.

When you can’t fit all your complications into a single name, either something’s gone wrong or it’s gone very, very right. In this case we’ll plump for the latter as, along with the titular grand Sonnerie and perpetual calendar, the new watch houses a total of 22 complications, the most noteworthy being a minute repeater, moon phase and, of course, tourbillon. A tourbillon in fact, that is so outclassed here by its high complication stablemates that it’s hidden on the back.

It’s not subtle about just how mechanically impressive it is either; the Octo’s full sapphire dial sees to that well enough. It allows you to see each of the minute pieces of mechanical ingenuity that make it up. The openness also doubles to make the chiming of the quarters, hours and minute repeater that much louder. Win-win you could say.

All of this is squeezed into a chunky Octo case – and we do mean chunky – with big pushers opposite the crown to deal with the various chiming features. We can only imagine how satisfying they must be to push – as will nearly everyone in the world. This is a unique piece and, like most watches of this nature, you can be pretty sure it’s already sold.

Yes, yes dry your tears and move on. You are not getting this watch. However, you can be sure Bulgari will be taking what they’ve learned in this and funnelling it into new releases in the future. It’s not all about being the thinnest after all. Future pieces likely won’t have all 22 complications, but hey, they also won’t cost $708,000 (around £550,000) either.

Price & Specs:

Model name: Bulgari Octo Grande Sonnerie Perpetual Calendar (Ref. OCP44GSKLTBGSQP) Dial/Case: 44mm, sandblasted 18k rose gold Movement: BVL 5307

Power reserve: 48 hours (going train) and 28 hours (strike train when fully wound and in petite sonnerie mode)

Water resistance: 30m Price: $708,000 or £540,115 (already sold)



More at: www.bulgari.com