The familiar shape of the Bulgari Octo Finissimo watch has been redesigned thanks to a collaboration between the brand and the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, who together give the piece a mirror effect in a dazzling play of light.
The Octo Finissimo Sejima Edition stays true to Sejima’s design codes, with a sapphire crystal dial featuring only a minimalist dot pattern. “For us, the signature style of the Octo Finissimo is a monochromatic titanium look,” says Fabrizio Buonamassa-Stigliani, Bulgari’s Executive Product Creative Director. “Here we introduce the same approach again – monochromatic with the unique finish – but this time in fully polished steel. The dial is a mirror, the hands also have this mirror effect, and there is a dot pattern introduced by Sejima on the sapphire crystal of the watch. There is no logo, and no indexes on the dial, it’s very pure. We worked around the concepts of “one material” and “one color” with the aim of creating a kind of “invisible watch”. It creates a strong bond between the object and the person using the object itself thanks to a completely shiny and polished watch.
(Image credit: Bulgari)
Buonamassa-Stigliani was first drawn to Sejima’s concept of the invisible train – a train with mirror surfaces, reflecting the landscape as it passed so as to appear completely invisible – and saw parallels with his creation of watches ultra-thin, so thin they almost seem to disappear. The watch is a bridge between these two concepts, its reflective surface means that you study yourself by looking at the time by rethinking the relationship between an object and a person.
“His buildings are best known for their clean, shiny surfaces that blend into the environment. I appreciate the characteristic style of Sejima represented by smooth surfaces and well-organized buildings accompanied by modernist elements of the time”, adds Buonamassa-Stigliani. “Squares and cubes are very present. Sejima likes to mix outdoor spaces with the interior of a building; for this reason, she always incorporates large windows in her buildings, developing a visual connection between interior and exterior spaces. All of these things are very interesting to me.
“What I particularly admire is the duality of the artist, his organic architecture, extremely geometric and essential, which is very close to the aesthetic approach of Bulgari watches.”
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(Image credit: Bulgari)
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