New Release: A Trio Of Bulgari Octo Chiming Watches Hit The High Notes

With Geneva Watch Days 2024 in full swing, Bulgari is aiming to sing its way into your hearts with three ultra-complicated Bulgari Octo chiming watches, created in collaboration with the Italian-Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti. The trio includes the Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon, as well as new takes on the Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon and Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater. The Octo Roma models include a tritone harmonic interval, also known as the devil’s interval due to its haunting sound— a first for the brand. Bulgari is no stranger to producing chiming watches with incredible minute repeaters, grand sonneries, and carillons in both its current and archived catalogs. These three new Octo models for 2024 continue Bulgari’s legacy of making watches that are both visually and auditorily impressive.

Bulgari Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon

The most complex watch made by Bulgari, the new Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon includes four hammers to mark time with a tune composed by conductor Lorenzo Viotti. The watch boasts a minute repeater on two tones, a carillon on three, and a grande and petite sonnerie on four tones. In grande sonnerie mode, the Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon automatically chimes the hours and quarters when they pass, and repeats the hour every hour. Conversely, in minute repeater mode, the watch chimes the hours, quarters, and minutes on demand. Making this ultra-complex auditory sensation possible, whereby the melody of gongs chime an eerie tritone, is the BVV Caliber 800, which is also equipped with a tourbillon.

The case of the watch is fashioned from satin-brushed titanium and measures 45mm in diameter and a mere 11.85mm thick despite its complexity. The open-worked gray DLC-treated brass dial displays the tourbillon, four gongs, and the governor, the mechanism that serves to set the tempo at which the watch chimes. Limited to only five examples, the Bulgari Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon will retail for €1,000,000.

Bulgari Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon

The impressive Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon also chimes the hours, quarters, and minutes, but without a grande sonnerie function. The first version, which was made in 30 pieces in 2021, used pretty standard harmonic intervals (meaning, notes that sound nice together). But on the 2024 release, the quarters strike with a dissonant two-note harmony known as a tritone. Lorenzo Viotti explains: “The purpose of this combination of notes is primarily the dissonance, the tension created by the tritone. It strongly contrasts with the modern preference for consonant harmonic intervals. In medieval symbolism, certain chords were linked to spiritual concepts. The tritone was considered disturbing, and due to its asymmetry, contrary to the religious canon of reflecting divine harmony – hence the nickname associating it with the devil’s workings.”

The dial of the Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon displays the tourbillon and minute repeater hammers, which will chime the sound on demand when the pusher at 9 o’clock is pressed. Housing the dial and BVL 428 movement is a 44mm 18k rose gold case, which measures 12.60mm thick. Again limited to 30 examples, this Bulgari Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon is priced at €380,000.

Learn more about chiming watches:
What is a Minute Repeater Watch?

Bonus: Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater Carbon

While the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater, the world’s thinnest chiming watch, isn’t a new watch, Bulgari is “reintroducing” the full carbon model at Geneva Watch Days 2024. Powering this ultra-thin minute repeater that chimes the hours, quarters, and minutes on demand is the record-setting 3.12mm-thick Caliber BVL 362 movement.

It lies inside a 40mm case (6.85mm-thick) fashioned from multi-layered CTP (Carbon Thin Ply), which is both ultra-lightweight and rigid. The case, punctuated with a titanium crown at 3 o’clock and a titanium pusher for the minute repeater at 9 o’clock, is paired with a matching carbon bracelet. The official retail price of the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater is €255,000. Few watch brands have mastered the chiming watch, but Bulgari seems intent on proving they’re one of them.

For more Geneva Watch Days 2024 content, start here:
Geneva Watch Days 2024: Over 50 Brands Will Release New Watches in August
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