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.

Elon Musk has engineered ties between Tesla TSLA 3.41%increase; up pointing triangle and SpaceX SPCX 7.79%increase; up pointing triangle that are hard to break, and now he wants to fuse them together permanently.

Musk has run both Tesla and SpaceX concurrently over the past two decades, using a schedule that dictated which days he spent focused on each business.

The companies have often shared resources and personnel, signaling their close ties. Last year, SpaceX looked into creating a spacesuit for Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus, a person familiar with the matter said. Tesla last week showed off its new Roadster, a vehicle featuring SpaceX rocket thrusters that it hopes to soon bring to market.

And in recent months, Musk has repositioned both companies by expanding beyond their core operations toward a shared mission centered on artificial intelligence.

The world’s richest man on Tuesday signaled his interest in tying up SpaceX and Tesla, marking what would be the biggest corporate merger of all time. Because he serves as chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk said committees of independent directors at both companies are evaluating a possible deal, adding that a transaction might not come to fruition.

The committees will likely evaluate, with lawyers and bankers, how each company would fare in a potential deal and how a deal might best be structured. They then present their conclusions to their respective boards, who typically vote on whether to proceed.

“It’s an odd Kabuki dance where two groups of people are talking and I can’t be in the conversation,” Musk told SpaceX investors on Tuesday in response to an analyst’s question about a potential deal.

For Musk, the merger supports his vision of a world full of autonomous cars, humanoid robots and weekly rocket launches, as well as the data centers and satellites required to keep the whole thing running.

Some investors and analysts said they expect a transaction would be structured as an all-stock deal, with SpaceX potentially paying a modest premium for Tesla shares.

SpaceX, which has a market value of about $2 trillion, said it is seeing sharp growth in revenue across its businesses, which include operating data centers, launching rockets and operating satellite networks such as the internet service Starlink. Tesla is valued at about $1.5 trillion and is expanding its operations beyond its automotive and energy business. Shares in both companies traded higher following the news Tuesday.

The SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy v3 Booster lift off from the launch complex in Starbase, Texas, framed by silhouetted plants in the foreground. — A test flight from the SpaceX launch complex in Starbase, Texas. Steve Nesius/Reuters

Musk’s substantial ownership stakes in both companies, along with voting control at SpaceX, has enabled him to set the deal in motion. Analysts and investors said the deal will probably face regulatory scrutiny internationally, though some see Musk’s close relationship with the Trump administration as an asset to getting approval.

Blurred lines

The companies haven’t said which directors are on the special committees evaluating a potential deal. Several SpaceX and Tesla board members have either personal or business ties to Musk. And like Musk, venture capitalist Ira Ehrenpreis sits on both boards.

In a filing this week, Tesla outlined millions of dollars in business agreements with SpaceX and its subsidiaries last year, including $143 million in car sales to SpaceX, $3.3 million in advertising that it bought on the social-media platform X and $430 million in revenue from the sale of Megapack batteries for SpaceX’s data centers.

The companies also split the cost of resources including the use of Musk’s SpaceX jet and the bill for his personal security, which he runs through a private company.

Employees at both companies routinely move between companies to work on special projects, and some executives have dual roles, including Charles Kuehmann, vice president of materials engineering at both SpaceX and Tesla, and Ashok Elluswamy, the vice president of AI software at Tesla who runs a joint venture with SpaceX called Digital Optimus.

Over the years, Musk has launched new startups within his empire, including brain-implant company Neuralink, underground-tunnel developer the Boring Company and xAI, the AI startup that merged with SpaceX in February.

It is that AI business that Musk thinks can serve a market worth tens of trillions of dollars, justifying the need for a merger.

The business case goes like this: Tesla is developing robotaxis and robots, which it calls “physical AI.” SpaceX is working on the back end of physical AI: the data-center capacity and internet connection required for those robotaxis and robots to operate continuously.

Tesla Optimus humanoid robots and a Cybercab autonomous vehicle on display. — A Tesla Cybercab autonomous driverless vehicle and Optimus humanoid robots. Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg News

“I don’t see what the value of Tesla is if it’s not merged with SpaceX,” said investment adviser Ross Gerber, a former Tesla bull turned critic invested in both companies. “If they don’t merge, the brains of everything that runs Tesla is owned by another company.”

On top of it all, both companies face constraints on the supply chains they need to make this world a reality, particularly when it comes to chips. To address this, Musk earlier this year announced a joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX and Intel to design and manufacture chips in Texas. “The most epic chip-building exercise by far,” he has said.

Musk at the wheel

For Musk, a merger would also solve two problems: demands on his attention and his lack of control at Tesla.

Tesla for years was Musk’s only public company, a status that came with greater scrutiny. There, Musk reports to a public board, as well as individual investors who make up around 30% of Tesla’s voting power, according to FactSet.

The question of Musk’s attention became a particular focus for investors and the board in recent years after he acquired Twitter in 2022 and launched xAI in 2023, and again in 2025 as he spent time in Washington, D.C., running the Department of Government Efficiency in the early months of President Trump’s second term.

As Tesla’s car business suffered in 2025, Musk threatened to take his AI ambitions outside the company if he wasn’t granted 25% voting control. Last November, Tesla shareholders approved a new pay package for Musk, which created a path for him to vastly expand his stake.

As of Sept. 30, Musk owned a roughly 20% stake in Tesla, according to the company’s proxy filing.

The SpaceX IPO gave Musk a different path. When SpaceX went public in June, the deal’s structure enabled him to have more than 80% voting power at the company—so much that he can’t be fired and decisions can’t be made without his support.

If SpaceX acquires Tesla, he will likely stay in control.