The reason we have chiming watches today is linked to the very beginnings of watchmaking. In the modern age, we're surrounded by mobiles, watches and computers, but in the 16th and 17th centuries, workers relied on church bells to regulate their daily activities. This telling of the time through sound has evolved through wall clocks and pocket watches to the wristwatches we have today.
Only a handful of brands have the capacity to develop and make chiming watches. At Bulgari, it's one of our specialisms and we're proud we can offer our clients this different level of experience that connects on a fully sensorial level, beyond the pure visual.
Our new piece, the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater, is the thinnest of its kind and represents some of the most advanced horology today. The size of the movement is amazing – just 0.123ins (3.12mm) thick, sitting inside a case of 0.26ins (6.85mm). The most interesting aspect, however, is not that this watch has achieved this new record, but that it's a completely new concept.
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A conventional minute repeater is certainly not an everyday watch, but something you wear for a special occasion. It's an extraordinary category in terms of prestige and expertise and the models tend to be bigger, heavier and extremely complex – the more components involved in a movement, the more delicate it becomes. This new timepiece is innovative in this respect: it's thin and extremely light and the movement is comparatively simple (although not at all easy to make), meaning that in terms of reliability and resistance, it can stand up to daily use. It's also water-resistant to 5ATM (165ft), which is very rare for this type of watch.
Both the case and dial are constructed from titanium, which we've chosen because of the way it transmits sound. If you imagine a drum, there is air inside and a thick membrane that reverberates – it requires volume, which is why minute repeaters tend to be so thick. Here, we have compensated for this in the material – titanium is perfect because it's low density compared to other metals such as gold, and the structure is more open, so the sound can travel easily. The dial has also been cut and the indices act as windows, creating direct communication between the front and back of the case and therefore increasing the volume and resonance of the watch.
At our manufacture, an individual watchmaker constructs each minute repeater start to finish, with the level of expertise required a testament to the complexity of these fascinating timepieces.
ANDREA GRANALLI is director of Bulgari Haute Horlogerie; bulgari.com