Machined and finished to perfection, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo is a modern mechanical timepiece, and its primary raison d’être must be to tell the time. And yet emotionally, it accomplishes so much more. It is a means of artistic expression. It is a vessel for creative indulgence. It is a bastion of technical sophistication. It reflects our fundamental understanding of beauty. And much like the sculptures of the old masters, from Michelangelo’s David to The Veiled Virgin by Giovanni Strazza, the Octo Finissimo’s timeless allure derives equally from both its physical construct and its base material. The beauty of Carrara marble ascends to new heights under every skillful chisel of the sculptor’s graver. Form and function are fused in one, just as the Bulgari Octo Finissimo’s awe-inspiring structure highlights the elemental beauty of high-performance materials.

After multiple triumphs with titanium and high-tech ceramic as well as classic gold, platinum and stainless steel, the Bulgari Octo Finissimo swiftly moved to conquer another exotic material in luxury watchmaking — carbon. Specifically in 2018, with the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater in a full carbon construct, Bulgari has created its most futuristic ultra thin minute repeater complication yet. In this watch, the manufacture combined thin-ply carbon with polyether ether ketone (PEEK) carbon for the 40mm case as well as the perforated dial and the bracelet. PEEK carbon is easily recognized thanks to its distinctive layers, and here you see it encircling the bezel and lining the watch’s profile too.

Meanwhile, the dial exudes a rather different aesthetic. Instead of consistently parallel layers, it evokes a clouded effect with various tones of grays and blacks from the grain boundaries all coming together to resemble a really cool camouflage pattern.

Now in 2023, Bulgari extends its dalliance with carbon through two new additions to the Octo Finissimo family. The Octo Finissimo CarbonGold Automatic and Octo Finissimo CarbonGold Perpetual Calendar debut a bold and audacious style that recalls Bulgari’s flair for making surprising and original creative associations.

Indeed, carbon and gold are two materials that cannot be more diametrically opposed. From a chemical point of view, they do not make naturally good matches, and yet the Octo Finissimo rendered in carbon and gold looks more captivating than ever, thanks to Bulgari’s artful approach to horological mechanics. For the first time at Bulgari, the entire watch — case, bezel, dial and bracelet — is uniformly covered in the signature grain lines resembling smoke swirls set against a jet black surface.

Appearing as a result of the carbon forging process, these naturally occurring streaks provide a dynamic backdrop to luxurious touches of rose gold applied to the crown, hands, indexes, numerals and also the solid gold cartouche on the case middle, which sits completely flush with the caseband, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but wait till you turn the watch over and voila! Enjoy an expansive view of the automatic calibers BVL 138 and BVL 305 (for the perpetual calendar model) with Côtes de Genève-decorated rose gold bridges and a micro-rotor crafted in rose gold plated platinum — talk about making a big statement.

On top of all that, the solid gold movements retain all of their ultra thinness, with caliber BVL 305 cutting a mean silhouette at just 2.75mm, which is just mind-blowing for a perpetual calendar movement requiring no adjustment until the year 2100. The balance is held in place by a single bridge also rendered in a gold tone material echoing the color palette of the movement. This entire sapphire crystal caseback is held in place by eight solid gold screws appearing like drops of golden sunshine.

Luxury on the inside but high-tech on the outside, the Octo Finissimo CarbonGold watches explore the creative tension between matte-finished, anthracite-colored carbon and glorious mirror-polished rose gold, revisiting a blend of materials that has existed in Bulgari’s portfolio since as early as 1993 — an interesting factoid not all watch collectors today might know. In addition, the Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar is no stranger to state-of- the-art innovation. If you’d recall, Bulgari’s entry for the 2021 Only Watch auction was an Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar cased in extra hard and extra tough but also extra sexy tantalum. With these watches, Bulgari has shown how incredibly versatile the Octo Finissimo can be.