Originally released in 2014, the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo burst onto the watchmaking scene as Bvlgari's latest entrant into the world of angular integrated bracelet timepieces inspired by Gerald Genta's signature design language. Since then, the Octo Finissimo has been Bvlagri's most often-used medium for horological innovation. In such a short span of time, Bvlgari focused all of its efforts in the field of ultra-thin watchmaking as it continues to break the “world’s thinnest” record, again and again, even to this very day. We do not mean to sound like a broken record, but it is simply near-impossible with what Bvlgari has been achieving.
What we have here is a very unique watch that is guaranteed to turn heads – the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Ceramic Chronograph GMT “Nuclear Option” for Revolution & The Rake.
In our opinion, this is probably one of the more interesting models to come out of the Finissimo lineup to date. Prior to its conceptualization, Bvlgari’s main idea was to create a more rugged and “tool-ish” version of the original record-setting automatic chronograph, but there were some technical concerns with the coating of the indexes and hands with Super Luminova on a dial that is only 0.3mm thick. Designer Fabrizio Buonamassa then proposed an interesting solution to coat the entire dial with Super Luminova to allow the indexes to stand out in negative relief.
According to Buonomassa, the design team at Bvlgari went through quite a number of dials to achieve this particular result, which he deemed it as the perfect balance where the dial would look like a normal white dial chronograph in daylight but as soon as you moved into darkness, it would glow with perfect legibility and remained luminous for a long time, almost like a LED screen on the dial itself.
Now for the technical side of things, the watch is powered by Bvlgari’s very own ultra-thin BVL 318 movement, which boasts a respectable 55 hours of power reserve. Whilst the watch is a little on the larger side at 43mm and comes in a fully blacked out, 7mm thick, sandblasted ceramic case and bracelet, there is a certain elegance in its physical form and stealthy presentation that is quite difficult to describe in a mere few words. The watch is light but commands a presence on the wrist. It also features a modern horizontally coupled, column-wheel chronograph function, a 24-hour GMT function, a local time one-hour advance pusher, and a small seconds subdial, all within the 3.30mm thin BVL 318. Impressive, right?
Limited to only 30 pieces and exclusively via Revolution’s online store, it was, as expected, quickly sold out. If you are looking for a watch that screams “wild-card”, this is the one for you.
