Bulgari’s Latest ‘Sketched’ Watches Are Drawing Attention

Bulgari celebrated its 140th anniversary this week with a trio of Octo Finissimo Sketch limited editions dedicated to the art of trompe l’oeil.

The French art history term translates to “deceive the eye,” a reference to the artist’s ability to fool the viewer into thinking they are looking at something real when it’s simply an artistic illusion.

Bulgari’s Sketch series debuted in 2022 with an Octo Finissimo Automatic and an Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT featuring “sketched” dials depicting the original hand drawings. This time, Bulgari flips the script with dials bearing illustrations of the interior movements, mirror images of the actual calibers that can be viewed through sapphire crystal case backs.

Limited to 280 pieces in steel (€17,800/about US$19,400) and 70 pieces in 18-karat 5N rose gold (€51,000/about US$55,500), the new Octo Finissimo Automatic Sketch depicts the in-house BVL 138 caliber’s micro-rotor, escapement, bridges, rubies, and intricate finishing details, such as Côtes de Genève and circular graining.

undefined Each monochromatic piece measures 40mm in diameter and 6.4mm thick, in keeping with Octo Finissimo’s ultra-thin theme. The sapphire crystal case back is engraved to commemorate the anniversary.

The third piece is a Chronograph GMT Sketch (€20,800/about US$22,600), featuring a 43mm polished steel case measuring 8.75mm thick. In 2019, the original Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT broke an ultra-thin record with a 3.33mm-thick caliber incorporating a 30-minute chronograph and central second in addition to a second time zone at 3 o’clock.

Limited to just 140 pieces, this edition’s dial features a sketch that blends dial and movement elements. The Tri-Compax chronograph dial display (GMT at 3 o’clock, 30-minute counter at 6 o’clock, small seconds at 9 o’clock) is combined with a balance between 4 and 5 o’clock, the chronograph column wheel at 8 o’clock, and finishing details on the bridges and gears.

Those who follow the Instagram account of Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari’s product creation executive director, will instantly recognise the stylistic signature of his fast-motion freehand sketching videos. Before joining Bulgari as a designer in 2001, he designed cars for the Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands at Centro Stile Fiat, where he honed his precise yet spontaneous fast-sketching technique using a pen or marker on paper.

Each monochromatic piece measures 40mm in diameter and 6.4mm thick, in keeping with Octo Finissimo’s ultra-thin theme.
Bulgari

In 2014, he re-envisioned Gérald Genta’s Octo design with the goal of creating the world’s thinnest mechanical watch. The resulting Octo Finissimo line went on to set nine ultra-thin records, including a number of complications, such as the world’s slimmest tourbillon, minute repeater, automatic chronograph, and perpetual calendar. In 2022 it went to extremes with the futuristic Ultra, measuring just 1.80mm thick. (Ultra was ultimately bested in 2022 by Richard Mille’s UP-01 Ferrari at 1.75mm thick.)

Such accomplishments represented daunting technical feats that brought Buonamassa Stigliani’s sketches into reality. When Bulgari acquired the Gérald Genta and Daniel Roth brands in 2000, it also secured the technical know-how to create such record-breaking ultra-thin watches. (LVMH acquired Bulgari in 2011 and has relaunched the Genta and Roth brands separately.)

Bulgari’s Sketch series pays homage to the importance of hand-drawn renderings in art history. Since the Renaissance, Italian artists kept their schizzi (sketches) for their students and their archives as references to use in the quest to improve upon an original design.

Wildfires in California have grown more frequent and more catastrophic in recent years, and that’s beginning to reflect in home values, according to a report by the San Francisco Fed released Monday.

The effect on home values has grown over time, and does not appear to be offset by access to insurance. However, “being farther from past fires is associated with a boost in home value of about 2% for homes of average value,” the report said.

In the decade between 2010 and 2020, wildfires lashed 715,000 acres per year on average in California, 81% more than the 1990s. At the same time, the fires destroyed more than 10 times as many structures, with over 4,000 per year damaged by fire in the 2010s, compared with 355 in the 1990s, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture cited by the report.

That was due in part to a number of particularly large and destructive fires in 2017 and 2018, such as the Camp and Tubbs fires, as well the number of homes built in areas vulnerable to wildfires, per the USDA account.

The Camp fire in 2018 was the most damaging in California by a wide margin, destroying over 18,000 structures, though it wasn’t even in the top 20 of the state’s largest fires by acreage. The Mendocino Complex fire earlier that same year was the largest ever at the time, in terms of area, but has since been eclipsed by even larger fires in 2020 and 2021.

As the threat of wildfires becomes more prevalent, the downward effect on home values has increased. The study compared how wildfires impacted home values before and after 2017, and found that in the latter period studied—from 2018 and 2021—homes farther from a recent wildfire earned a premium of roughly $15,000 to $20,000 over similar homes, about $10,000 more than prior to 2017.

The effect was especially pronounced in the mountainous areas around Los Angeles and the Sierra Nevada mountains, since they were closer to where wildfires burned, per the report.

The study also checked whether insurance was enough to offset the hit to values, but found its effect negligible. That was true for both public and private insurance options, even though private options provide broader coverage than the state’s FAIR Plan, which acts as an insurer of last resort and provides coverage for the structure only, not its contents or other types of damages covered by typical homeowners insurance.

“While having insurance can help mitigate some of the costs associated with fire episodes, our results suggest that insurance does little to improve the adverse effects on property values,” the report said.

While wildfires affect homes across the spectrum of values, many luxury homes in California tend to be located in areas particularly vulnerable to the threat of fire.

“From my experience, the high-end homes tend to be up in the hills,” said Ari Weintrub, a real estate agent with Sotheby’s in Los Angeles. “It’s up and removed from down below.”

That puts them in exposed, vegetated areas where brush or forest fires are a hazard, he said.

While the effect of wildfire risk on home values is minimal for now, it could grow over time, the report warns. “This pattern may become stronger in years to come if residential construction continues to expand into areas with higher fire risk and if trends in wildfire severity continue.”

Bulgari’s Latest ‘Sketched’ Watches Are Drawing Attention

Report by the San Francisco Fed shows small increase in premiums for properties further away from the sites of recent fires