For the full review go to: https://www.hodinkee.com/artic....les/bulgari-octo-fin

In high-end mechanical watchmaking, few things are truly new or original. It’s a category that plays with nostalgia, after all. The majority of the popular brands we cover on HODINKEE got their start decades if not centuries ago, and many of the product lines from those brands date from the last century or earlier. Updates to long-established designs tend to be made incrementally.

So when I encounter a watch like the Octo Finissimo, I sit up and take notice. Sure, Bulgari was founded in 1884, and the Octo range started as part of Bulgari’s erstwhile Gérald Genta line. But there really is nothing that feels quite like a Bulgari Octo Finissimo when you try it on. It’s at once a design object and a highly engineered piece of machinery. And to be honest, I can’t think of a product that has done more to advance Bulgari’s status as a contender in the high-end watch space. The Serpenti may be a super cool thing and an icon in its own right in the ladies’ watch arena, but when I think of Bulgari watchmaking, it’s the Octo Finissimo that comes to mind. I’m willing to bet that’s the case for a lot people reading. This record-breaking take on the chunkier Octo has the capacity to excite wildly different segments of consumers, from design devotees, to luxury lovers, to the horophiles.