Bvlgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon : the Thinnest Tourbillon Movement in the world
Avoiding simplistic approaches and preconceived ideas, Bvlgari creates remarkable, unusual, and meticulous watches that perfectly combine Italian creativity and Swiss precision. Bvlgari’s Octo, being both a precision timepiece and an architectural creation, has become a mainstay in the watch collections of Bvlgari, a house known far and wide for its daring and fine-jewellery expertise.
By introducing the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon, Bvlgari 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 – no others even come close – and the thinnest ever made.
Octo Finissimo Tourbillon : thinner than a Swiss five-france coin
Watchmaking history is full of ultra-thin watches. This can present complex challenges when the watch contains a complication such as a tourbillon. 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.
Exceptional design
When all is said and done, everything about the Finissimo Tourbillon calibre speaks of mechanical innovation. It 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. To discover more timepieces, visit our Watches category.
