Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon is specified at 1.85 mm thick overall. The brand says it achieved that profile by radically rethinking the watch’s design, development and engineering, integrating a skeleton flying tourbillon into an exceptionally thin format. Bulgari’s published material identifies the movement and its basic specifications, but does not provide a component-by-component construction recipe.
What makes the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon 1.85 mm thick?
The short answer is system-level integration: Bulgari says the design and engineering were rethought around a skeleton tourbillon in a watch measuring just 1.85 mm in total. That is the manufacturer’s high-level explanation, not a detailed account of how each part is arranged or made. The official product page names the hand-wound BVF 900 flying tourbillon calibre and publishes its operating specifications, but does not explain a full construction sequence.
That distinction matters. The available official information supports describing the achievement as a highly integrated thin-watch design; it does not establish specific details about plate materials, component placement, crown arrangements, crystal attachment or suppliers. Those details should not be inferred from the watch’s thickness alone.
What Bulgari publishes about the watch and movement
Bulgari lists the Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon as reference 104344, with a platinum case and bracelet, blue accents and the BVF 900 hand-wound flying tourbillon calibre. Its published specifications are:
#1 Best Overall
- This tourbillon designed by Swiss designer Etienne Ruffieux with modern architectural aesthetics, features a lightweight, comfortable, free-sprung balance flying tourbillon. It houses an independently developed architectural tourbillon movement adorned with oversized ruby bearings. The design aesthetic is expressed through the interplay of light and shadow created by its extreme skeletonization. The watch has been honored with the IAI Global Design Award for its outstanding original design.
- Independently developed CAL9001 free-sprung balance flying tourbillon movement, manual winding, 28,880 vibrations per hour, 25 ruby bearings. Features high-end finishing including satin brushing and beveled edges, engraved brand logo with gold-stamped. Dual mainspring series technology delivers 80-hour power reserve (twice that of standard tourbillon movements). This technology ensures more uniform and gradual mainspring release, resulting in enhanced timekeeping precision and stability.
- The CAL9001 tourbillon movement features the exclusive free-sprung micro-adjustment technology typically reserved for luxury timepieces. This free-sprung system eliminates the need for a balance spring regulator, thereby overcoming the timing inaccuracies caused by regulator displacement in conventional mechanical movements. This ensures the watch delivers enhanced precision and stability in timekeeping.
- This tourbillon measures 40mm in diameter and just 9.7mm in thickness, weighing a mere 67 grams. Its meticulously engineered structure and radically skeletonized tourbillon movement eliminate all superfluous metal components, allowing the mechanical artistry of the free-sprung flying tourbillon to shine in its purest form. It is an exquisite, high-end tourbillon watch that is both ultra-thin and supremely comfortable.
- The watch is water-resistant to 50 meters, featuring a double-sided sapphire crystal and an Italian leather strap with hand-stitched detailing for comfortable and durable wear. We offer a three-year worldwide warranty.
- Total watch thickness: 1.85 mm.
- Power reserve: 42 hours.
- Frequency: 28,800 vibrations per hour, or 4 Hz.
- Tourbillon: flying tourbillon.
These are manufacturer-published figures on Bulgari’s official Octo Finissimo Ultra product page. Bulgari’s Watches and Wonders 2025 editorial describes the skeleton tourbillon as integrated into the 1.85 mm-thick watch and calls the launch the brand’s tenth world record.
How it differs from Bulgari’s earlier automatic tourbillon
The Ultra Tourbillon should not be confused with the earlier Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic, reference 103072. Bulgari describes that model’s BVL 288 as an evolution of the Finissimo Tourbillon movement launched in 2014. It is automatic, using a peripheral oscillating weight on the back, while the Ultra Tourbillon’s BVF 900 is hand-wound.
Rank #2
- This tourbillon crafted by Swiss chief designer Etienne Ruffieux with modern architectural aesthetics, features a lightweight, comfortable, free-sprung balance flying tourbillon. It houses an independently developed architectural tourbillon movement adorned with oversized ruby bearings. The design aesthetic is expressed through the interplay of light and shadow created by its extreme skeletonization. The watch has been honored with the IAI Global Design Award for its outstanding original design.
- Independently developed CAL9001 free-sprung balance flying tourbillon movement, manual winding, 28,880 vibrations per hour, 25 ruby bearings. Features high-end finishing including satin brushing and beveled edges, engraved brand logo with gold-stamped. Dual mainspring series technology delivers 80-hour power reserve (twice that of standard tourbillon movements). This technology ensures more uniform and gradual mainspring release, resulting in enhanced timekeeping precision and stability.
- The CAL9001 tourbillon movement features the exclusive free-sprung micro-adjustment technology typically reserved for luxury timepieces. This free-sprung system eliminates the need for a balance spring regulator, thereby overcoming the timing inaccuracies caused by regulator displacement in conventional mechanical movements. This ensures the watch delivers enhanced precision and stability in timekeeping.
- This tourbillon measures 40mm in diameter and just 9.7mm in thickness, weighing a mere 67 grams. Its meticulously engineered structure and radically skeletonized tourbillon movement eliminate all superfluous metal components, allowing the mechanical artistry of the free-sprung flying tourbillon to shine in its purest form. It is an exquisite, high-end tourbillon watch that is both ultra-thin and supremely comfortable.
- The watch is water-resistant to 50 meters, featuring a double-sided sapphire crystal and an Italian leather strap with hand-stitched detailing for comfortable and durable wear. We offer a three-year worldwide warranty.
| Model and reference | Winding and calibre | Published thickness | Power reserve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Octo Finissimo Ultra Tourbillon, 104344 | Hand-wound BVF 900 flying tourbillon | 1.85 mm total watch thickness | 42 hours |
| Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic, 103072 | Automatic BVL 288; peripheral oscillating weight on the back | 1.95 mm calibre thickness | 52 hours |
The figures come from separate Bulgari product pages: the Ultra page and the reference 103072 page. The comparison is useful for understanding the models, but it is not a controlled comparison: one thickness figure describes the complete Ultra watch, while the other describes the earlier model’s calibre.
Is it officially the world’s thinnest tourbillon watch?
Bulgari presents the Ultra Tourbillon as the thinnest tourbillon watch ever and calls it the brand’s tenth world record. Those are Bulgari’s claims in its own 2025 editorial; the cited material does not include an independent adjudication by a third-party horological authority. The precise, verifiable statement from the manufacturer is that the watch measures 1.85 mm in total thickness.
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- This tourbillon crafted by Swiss chief designer Etienne Ruffieux with modern architectural aesthetics, features a lightweight, comfortable, free-sprung balance flying tourbillon. It houses an independently developed architectural tourbillon movement adorned with oversized ruby bearings. The design aesthetic is expressed through the interplay of light and shadow created by its extreme skeletonization. The watch has been honored with the IAI Global Design Award for its outstanding original design.
- Independently developed CAL9001 free-sprung balance flying tourbillon movement, manual winding, 28,880 vibrations per hour, 25 ruby bearings. Features high-end finishing including satin brushing and beveled edges, engraved brand logo with gold-stamped. Dual mainspring series technology delivers 80-hour power reserve (twice that of standard tourbillon movements). This technology ensures more uniform and gradual mainspring release, resulting in enhanced timekeeping precision and stability.
- The CAL9001 tourbillon movement features the exclusive free-sprung micro-adjustment technology typically reserved for luxury timepieces. This free-sprung system eliminates the need for a balance spring regulator, thereby overcoming the timing inaccuracies caused by regulator displacement in conventional mechanical movements. This ensures the watch delivers enhanced precision and stability in timekeeping.
- This tourbillon measures 40mm in diameter and just 9.7mm in thickness, weighing a mere 67 grams. Its meticulously engineered structure and radically skeletonized tourbillon movement eliminate all superfluous metal components, allowing the mechanical artistry of the free-sprung flying tourbillon to shine in its purest form. It is an exquisite, high-end tourbillon watch that is both ultra-thin and supremely comfortable.
- The watch is water-resistant to 50 meters, featuring a double-sided sapphire crystal and an Italian leather strap with hand-stitched detailing for comfortable and durable wear. We offer a three-year worldwide warranty.
What the public engineering account does—and does not—explain
The public explanation establishes the design ambition and outcome: rethink design, development and engineering, then integrate a skeleton flying tourbillon into a 1.85 mm-thick watch. It does not provide enough technical detail to reconstruct how the case, movement, winding mechanism and other components were individually engineered to reach that measurement.
A Bulgari Japan release identifies Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani as the company’s Watch Product Creation Executive Director and reproduces his statement in Japanese: “ブルガリのウォッチメイキングのノウハウをすべて凝縮したウォッチを作り出そうというアイデアでした。” The release also gives a 40 mm diameter and repeats the movement’s 28,800-vibrations-per-hour frequency and 42-hour reserve. Because the cited release does not supply an official English rendering, the Japanese statement is not translated here as a verbatim English quotation. Bulgari Japan / PR Times release, 1 April 2025.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- This tourbillon crafted by Swiss chief designer Etienne Ruffieux with modern architectural aesthetics, features a lightweight, comfortable, free-sprung balance flying tourbillon. It houses an independently developed architectural tourbillon movement adorned with oversized ruby bearings. The design aesthetic is expressed through the interplay of light and shadow created by its extreme skeletonization. The watch has been honored with the IAI Global Design Award for its outstanding original design.
- Independently developed CAL9001 free-sprung balance flying tourbillon movement, manual winding, 28,880 vibrations per hour, 25 ruby bearings. Features high-end finishing including satin brushing and beveled edges, engraved brand logo with gold-stamped. Dual mainspring series technology delivers 80-hour power reserve (twice that of standard tourbillon movements). This technology ensures more uniform and gradual mainspring release, resulting in enhanced timekeeping precision and stability.
- The CAL9001 tourbillon movement features the exclusive free-sprung micro-adjustment technology typically reserved for luxury timepieces. This free-sprung system eliminates the need for a balance spring regulator, thereby overcoming the timing inaccuracies caused by regulator displacement in conventional mechanical movements. This ensures the watch delivers enhanced precision and stability in timekeeping.
- This tourbillon measures 40mm in diameter and just 9.7mm in thickness, weighing a mere 67 grams. Its meticulously engineered structure and radically skeletonized tourbillon movement eliminate all superfluous metal components, allowing the mechanical artistry of the free-sprung flying tourbillon to shine in its purest form. It is an exquisite, high-end tourbillon watch that is both ultra-thin and supremely comfortable.
- The watch is water-resistant to 50 meters, featuring a double-sided sapphire crystal and an Italian leather strap with hand-stitched detailing for comfortable and durable wear. We offer a three-year worldwide warranty.
Rank #4
- This tourbillon crafted by Swiss chief designer Etienne Ruffieux with modern architectural aesthetics, features a lightweight, comfortable, free-sprung balance flying tourbillon. It houses an independently developed architectural tourbillon movement adorned with oversized ruby bearings. The design aesthetic is expressed through the interplay of light and shadow created by its extreme skeletonization. The watch has been honored with the IAI Global Design Award for its outstanding original design.
- Independently developed CAL9001 free-sprung balance flying tourbillon movement, manual winding, 28,880 vibrations per hour, 25 ruby bearings. Features high-end finishing including satin brushing and beveled edges, engraved brand logo with gold-stamped. Dual mainspring series technology delivers 80-hour power reserve (twice that of standard tourbillon movements). This technology ensures more uniform and gradual mainspring release, resulting in enhanced timekeeping precision and stability.
- The CAL9001 tourbillon movement features the exclusive free-sprung micro-adjustment technology typically reserved for luxury timepieces. This free-sprung system eliminates the need for a balance spring regulator, thereby overcoming the timing inaccuracies caused by regulator displacement in conventional mechanical movements. This ensures the watch delivers enhanced precision and stability in timekeeping.
- This tourbillon measures 40mm in diameter and just 9.7mm in thickness, weighing a mere 67 grams. Its meticulously engineered structure and radically skeletonized tourbillon movement eliminate all superfluous metal components, allowing the mechanical artistry of the free-sprung flying tourbillon to shine in its purest form. It is an exquisite, high-end tourbillon watch that is both ultra-thin and supremely comfortable.
- The watch is water-resistant to 50 meters, featuring a double-sided sapphire crystal and an Italian leather strap with hand-stitched detailing for comfortable and durable wear. We offer a three-year worldwide warranty.
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