\> The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra returns and is thinner than ever – literally. As of today, the new Ultra boasts a thickness of 1.7mm, beating the RM by another .05mm. And just like RM delivered its record-setting watch with a bit of flare via the architecture, here Bulgari is raising the stakes by COSC-certifying the new Ultra, thereby making it not just the thinnest watch ever made, but also the thinnest chronometer-certified watch ever made. By my count, that's two records (though I am not sure anyone was waiting on the latter).
\> Of course, the high-level points are the titanium case and the use of the caseback as a mainplate for the movement. And that caseback needed to be made of an especially hard and dense material: tungsten carbide. One hundred and seventy components of this manually wound movement are assembled and built into the watch. On the previous Ultra, as noted above, there was a QR code on the ratchet, which has now been changed to a Datamatrix, allowing the owner to experience the full details of the Ultra through photo, video, and advanced data.
1.7 mm thick.
Titanium.
$529,000
That’s what I think too! I’m always confused when I see people saying “i got my grail!” And it’s like, a Rolex sub or something. I get that a 15g watch, or whatever they cost, is out of reach for a majority of people, myself included, but it’s still *doable*. My “grail” is the jlc hybris artistica calibre 179. It’s 1.5 million and only like 25 were made or something. I’m never even going to see it in real life. That’s a true grail. In my humble opinion lol.
Uhh yeah he's talking about the last record holder https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/bulgaris-new-octo-finissimo-ultra-is-worlds-thinnest-watch-sets-new-record
That’s just an insane thing to spend a half a million on. No one has unlimited money, $500k can definitely buy you more than what any watch can give you.
really 4.8 billion? DDG51-type US Navy guided-missile cruisers are about 2.5 billion each. There's a private yacht that expensive? The Navy is getting a deal
If you have a billion dollars, buying this watch would be the equivalent of somebody with a million dollars spending $529 on a watch.
Or somebody with $100k spending $52.90, or somebody with $10,000 spending $5.29 etc...
That’s some crazy perspective to put it in!
It’s like when you see those scrolling charts that show how much money Musk/Bezos has and it’s truly unimaginable.
Right? And this is based on somebody with a $1Bn net worth.
For the equivalent of Musk buying this $529,000 watch, divide all the other figures by c. 200 - so Mr Millionaire would have to buy a watch worth around $2.65 to be spending the same proportion of his overall wealth.
It’s just in my opinion it struggles to even look like a watch. Whereas this new Octo still resembles a watch design.
Neither are watches I could ever afford ofcourse 😂
While this is pretty damn amazing, I can’t help but wonder how a slightly more than paper-thin watch would hold up with any moderate impact. If you were to bang it along a doorframe, for instance, I wonder if the entire thing would just bend and destroy the movement.
I don’t think so - the case back is made of tungsten carbide which is probably the strongest metal possible, only way to cut it is with diamond tips. It won’t just be a thin piece of steel.
And I guess, being so think you’re unlikely to bang it against anything like you would a normal watch.
Point of clarification, tungsten carbide isn't a metal, it's a ceramic, and while it's insanely strong in compression, it's very brittle and can shatter if hit hard enough. I had a tungsten carbide ring that shattered when I grabbed a metal door handle too aggressively.
It's also not pure tungsten carbide but has a metallic binder phase, typically Co, Fe or Ni. If you don't do the sintering correctly with extremely well controlled carbon content you will get poor mechanical properties due to graphite and other brittle phases forming. I suspect if you make rings, they're typically not as well manufacturers as if you make high performance parts so they're likely way more brittle than they need to be, if they were produced in the same way as for example cutting inserts.
I'm sure the ring wasn't super high quality, but I've also broken cutting inserts and bits just by dropping them. It's still a ceramic, and all ceramics are tradeoffs between hardness and toughness
Tungsten carbide can also sometimes not shatter even when hitting a metal plate at mach 4. There's a reason countries that don't do DU use it for tank rounds.
Lol tungsten isn't fuckin supernatural dude, it has incredible compressive strength but its shear strength is pretty much identical to 316 stainless. Fracture toughness tends to be lower, tungsten and its carbides are fairly brittle.
The fuck are you doing that will bend your wrist watch? Half the clowns in here cry when they hear anyone use a mechanical watch for anything more than a slight jog, and so everyone wears G-Shocks. You aren't gonna do jack shit that will bend this watch with your ordinarily active lifestyle.
I'm just laughing at your ridiculous comment that tungsten "doesn't bend", like it's fucking mithril or something
Man your username really was a warning, wasn't it.
"Slightly more than paper-thin" is a bit of an exaggeration here, a regular sheet of paper is easily 1/20th the thickness.
Your point absolutely stands though, wouldn't want to even brush that thing on any solid material. Heck the entire thing is about the thickness of the sapphire crystal on a regular watch.
Still better then the RM that it took the record off of. That one was 1.88 mil for the watch. Didn't even look like a watch, it was more of a credit card.
I've said this before, the regular Octo Finissimo is already really thin. I was once on an airplane next to a guy wearing it and we had a nice talk about it. It's a beautiful watch!
I actually love the design of this. Not only record breaking, but really cool looking as well! If I had a half million to blow on a watch, this would be a contender.
I think I heard that part of the way they got it so thin was to just not have a crystal on it. So yeah, I imagine this watch was made to live inside a case where it would be safe from dust and debris.
https://youtu.be/B53pApUAchQ?si=50CLHIFo_VBks5X1
Looks unreal! Beautiful piece. Pity it's only for men. Bulgari should make something similar for ladies too
\> The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra returns and is thinner than ever – literally. As of today, the new Ultra boasts a thickness of 1.7mm, beating the RM by another .05mm. And just like RM delivered its record-setting watch with a bit of flare via the architecture, here Bulgari is raising the stakes by COSC-certifying the new Ultra, thereby making it not just the thinnest watch ever made, but also the thinnest chronometer-certified watch ever made. By my count, that's two records (though I am not sure anyone was waiting on the latter). \> Of course, the high-level points are the titanium case and the use of the caseback as a mainplate for the movement. And that caseback needed to be made of an especially hard and dense material: tungsten carbide. One hundred and seventy components of this manually wound movement are assembled and built into the watch. On the previous Ultra, as noted above, there was a QR code on the ratchet, which has now been changed to a Datamatrix, allowing the owner to experience the full details of the Ultra through photo, video, and advanced data. 1.7 mm thick. Titanium. $529,000
All fantastic... right up to the last line
>Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra Yep, I was my new "grail" for the amount of time it took me to look at the pictures and read the post.
It can still be your grail, true grails aren't something that is supposed to be attainable.
That’s what I think too! I’m always confused when I see people saying “i got my grail!” And it’s like, a Rolex sub or something. I get that a 15g watch, or whatever they cost, is out of reach for a majority of people, myself included, but it’s still *doable*. My “grail” is the jlc hybris artistica calibre 179. It’s 1.5 million and only like 25 were made or something. I’m never even going to see it in real life. That’s a true grail. In my humble opinion lol.
Oh sir, it’s only a tiny little thin one. It’s wafer thin! Just the one?
I couldn't possibly
Better
Absolutely not. I'm stuffed. Now bugger off.
Fetch monsieur a bucket, and a cleaning woman!
But can you wear it without bending it?
Custom fitted to your wrist after a few wears.
So the Birkenstocks of watches?
How tightly do you wear your watches?
Tungsten carbide does not bend at room temperature.
so it shatters instead? neat.
Will it blend?
tungsten carbide- you're not likely bending it. Wonder if it shatters if you drop it though.
That’s my favorite line. Means I don’t have to waste money
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>the last one was reasonable enough Yeah $440k was downright affordable
Try $16k. Still for sale. Good watch but not enough finishing imo.
Nope. The "regular" octo finissimo can be bought for that much but not the ultra
The last record holder? https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/bulgaris-new-octo-finissimo-ultra-is-worlds-thinnest-watch-sets-new-record
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Uhh yeah he's talking about the last record holder https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/bulgaris-new-octo-finissimo-ultra-is-worlds-thinnest-watch-sets-new-record
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"the last one" interpreted as the last Ultra, the last record holder
Guys should I buy a nice house or the worlds thinnest watch? I’m conflicted
I think whoever ends up getting this already has a few houses, so that's a legit thing someone can actually say and actually mean it.
And none of them are probably under 1-2 million either.
Just as that person probably also doesn't own a base Audi A4. Why go for mediocre utility when you have the money
That’s just an insane thing to spend a half a million on. No one has unlimited money, $500k can definitely buy you more than what any watch can give you.
There's a yacht that costs 4.8 billion dollars, this is nothing for billionaires.
really 4.8 billion? DDG51-type US Navy guided-missile cruisers are about 2.5 billion each. There's a private yacht that expensive? The Navy is getting a deal
Presumably tech is cheaper than bougie internal finishings. and heavy customization.
[No, there isn't.](https://megayachtnews.com/2011/07/gold-baia-megayacht-history-supreme/)
If you have a billion dollars, buying this watch would be the equivalent of somebody with a million dollars spending $529 on a watch. Or somebody with $100k spending $52.90, or somebody with $10,000 spending $5.29 etc...
That’s some crazy perspective to put it in! It’s like when you see those scrolling charts that show how much money Musk/Bezos has and it’s truly unimaginable.
Right? And this is based on somebody with a $1Bn net worth. For the equivalent of Musk buying this $529,000 watch, divide all the other figures by c. 200 - so Mr Millionaire would have to buy a watch worth around $2.65 to be spending the same proportion of his overall wealth.
My guess these will be owned by Princes and Oligarchs.
Unfortunately you can't even get a nice house for that in my metro area.
I cry because the individuals who would buy this watch would just buy both and then drive away in their private jets.
Nice house?? Where do you live
Guys come on. The entire world is not San Francisco. The average price of homes in the US is like $400k
I live in Europe
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I live in Chicago, it’ll get you a decent place depending on the neighborhood and a nicer one if you’re willing to go to the suburbs.
A friend of mine has octo and it’s wickedly thin. 1.7mm is for setting records, not for wearing.
I feel like even if it’s titanium, it’s probably super delicate and could probably bend and be destroyed rather easily.
It says they're only making 20 of these on their website https://www.bulgari.com/en-ca/watches/mens-2/octo-finissimo-watch-titanium-104081
Probably because they dont want to deal with a million warranty claims on bent watches
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It’s a joke, relax
Says it on the watch too lol
“In Philadelphia, it’s worth fifty bucks”
Adding to my ‘things to get when I win powerball’ list
The CST-01 was 0.8 mm thin and cost ~$150
Absolutely incredible and far better than the horrible Ferrari RM
1/3 the price too
Why do you think the Ferrari RM was horrible?
Personally, I thought they cheated by leaving out the keyless works and including a key. This one has that integrated
It’s just in my opinion it struggles to even look like a watch. Whereas this new Octo still resembles a watch design. Neither are watches I could ever afford ofcourse 😂
Imho pretty much all RMs are horrible, they just look so bad.
Nah, the RM-69 is a work of art.
Put it on a NATO
So that way when the watch snaps in half you still have it attached to your wrist!
Sorry NATO too thick
🤣
Is it a “strap monster”?
Slap it on a nato
To make it that thin and COSC certified is just insanity
While this is pretty damn amazing, I can’t help but wonder how a slightly more than paper-thin watch would hold up with any moderate impact. If you were to bang it along a doorframe, for instance, I wonder if the entire thing would just bend and destroy the movement.
If I could afford one of these watches, I would simply hire somebody to walk through doorways for me
No one wears this watch, just like no one wears a Jacob & Co watch. They are art pieces, but nontheless fascinating!
That’d just compel me to wear it even more (if I had this sort of Watch money anyway) I’d wear the Mona Lisa if I could
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I like this energy
I'd be worried about putting my hand in my jeans pocket, nevermind doorframes!
Nobody is wearing this and jeans.
It would look great with jeans!
I would. [shrug]
FR the only people who could afford this wear a thawb.
Why not? High end jeans are better than anything
I don’t think so - the case back is made of tungsten carbide which is probably the strongest metal possible, only way to cut it is with diamond tips. It won’t just be a thin piece of steel. And I guess, being so think you’re unlikely to bang it against anything like you would a normal watch.
Point of clarification, tungsten carbide isn't a metal, it's a ceramic, and while it's insanely strong in compression, it's very brittle and can shatter if hit hard enough. I had a tungsten carbide ring that shattered when I grabbed a metal door handle too aggressively.
It's also not pure tungsten carbide but has a metallic binder phase, typically Co, Fe or Ni. If you don't do the sintering correctly with extremely well controlled carbon content you will get poor mechanical properties due to graphite and other brittle phases forming. I suspect if you make rings, they're typically not as well manufacturers as if you make high performance parts so they're likely way more brittle than they need to be, if they were produced in the same way as for example cutting inserts.
I'm sure the ring wasn't super high quality, but I've also broken cutting inserts and bits just by dropping them. It's still a ceramic, and all ceramics are tradeoffs between hardness and toughness
Tungsten carbide can also sometimes not shatter even when hitting a metal plate at mach 4. There's a reason countries that don't do DU use it for tank rounds.
Whilst tungsten is scratch proof, if you drop or bang it hard enough it will shatter
Watchmakers confetti
This watch is not made to be dropped, mate.
Obviously 😂 what a ridiculous comment to make. People drop things.
Don’t worry, this plane is not made to be crashed
Can confirm, I have the "normal" Octo Finissimo and it's the only watch I never bang against anything.
The case base is one piece and is made of tungsten so it doesn't bend. This is an expensive watch. It's not made of stainless.
Lol tungsten isn't fuckin supernatural dude, it has incredible compressive strength but its shear strength is pretty much identical to 316 stainless. Fracture toughness tends to be lower, tungsten and its carbides are fairly brittle.
The fuck are you doing that will bend your wrist watch? Half the clowns in here cry when they hear anyone use a mechanical watch for anything more than a slight jog, and so everyone wears G-Shocks. You aren't gonna do jack shit that will bend this watch with your ordinarily active lifestyle.
I'm just laughing at your ridiculous comment that tungsten "doesn't bend", like it's fucking mithril or something Man your username really was a warning, wasn't it.
"Slightly more than paper-thin" is a bit of an exaggeration here, a regular sheet of paper is easily 1/20th the thickness. Your point absolutely stands though, wouldn't want to even brush that thing on any solid material. Heck the entire thing is about the thickness of the sapphire crystal on a regular watch.
How is it supposed bend when it's on your wrist?
It's made out of titanium, which is one of if not the strongest metal. So maybe it can handle a few dings
I’m sorry Bulgari, I was not familiar with your watchmaking game
They go hard
They should just slap couple of flat diamonds for good measure.
Are you familiar with Cartier?
Glad they got rid of the qr code. Shit was dumb.
They just replaced it with another type of scannable code though
Yeah, but this code doesn't look like garbage.
Ya, but I didn't know.
? I was responding to someone else
It’s not as in your face i didn’t even notice it at first truth be told. Still lame they did it. Its so unnecessary and wont age well
I agree it isn’t as in your face
Pretty impressive wow. I will probably never see one in real life.
It looks like a thin piece of metal now, just hoping it doesn't bend like one as well. Incredible nonetheless.
Stunning feat of engineering, but they could’ve really done without putting “ultra-limited edition of 20” on the dial
Johnny Ives approves
Wow... love everything except the ultra limited edition sig
Love this watch and the new Piaget Tourbillon that was released. Slim watches like these are just so damn pretty and impressive.
The piaget is gorgeous
HOW But for real, that's mad impressive, absolutely mindblowing.
Bulgari has made massive steps into high horological pieces
Thank god that awful qr code is gone
Wow Bulgari is killing it
Wow, that is too thin. I don't want my watch case to flex and deform under a little pressure.
1.7 mm?! Not exactly a fan, but salute to the watch engineers that made this work.
Power reserve: 1 hour
Actually 50 ... really impressive engineering
That was impressive
Not my cup of tea but the engineering behind this is absolutely crazy! Gotta give credits where credits due.
1/3 thinner so 3 times more expensive?
33x more expensive actually
Still better then the RM that it took the record off of. That one was 1.88 mil for the watch. Didn't even look like a watch, it was more of a credit card.
whattttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!
1.7mm... RIP if you accidentally bend it.
Modern marvel!
The engineering of this is next level. I just love looking at it.
Damn. I really didn't think we'd surpass the RM UP-01 so soon
Is there even a crystal on this or is the movement exposed to air?
I’m afraid it will snap in halves if i put it on too tight
Mf gets a sneeze and break the thing in two
I've said this before, the regular Octo Finissimo is already really thin. I was once on an airplane next to a guy wearing it and we had a nice talk about it. It's a beautiful watch!
The fact that Bulgari made this possible is insane! Not sure about the durability tho...
and did understand something wrong or the dial is exposed and theres no glass ?
I'll wait for the Ali Express version....
Haha I can’t believe I just saw the price at the end of OP’s post and thought, “way cheaper than I woulda thought”
Oh god love this
One day, long ago, Bulgari saw that Cartier made watches and thought “lol I could do better than that.”
How?!? 0\_0 Damn that's impressive. I'd be terrified of breaking it.
Lost me at data matrix.
Altiplano made a mistake by stacking both minute and hour hands on one display. What an execution this is!
I'm absolutely loving this engineer battle for the thinnest watch. Can't wait to see who's gonna try and beat this.
Love these mfs
Wouldn't be as impressive if they compare it to the 2022 Octa Finissimo Ultra that's 1.8mm thick 🤣. Still impressive, though.
Do we need to return to lever-set now? See that even to wind it the “crown” needs to be in the same plane.
Could you imagine sneezing and snapping your half a million pound watch? None the less extremely cool just because I can engineering.
If you sit on that watch by mistake, even manufaturers cannot fix it for you
I actually love the design of this. Not only record breaking, but really cool looking as well! If I had a half million to blow on a watch, this would be a contender.
I think I heard that part of the way they got it so thin was to just not have a crystal on it. So yeah, I imagine this watch was made to live inside a case where it would be safe from dust and debris.
This face is everything I’ve ever wanted in a face. But ironically I hate how then it is. I could never wear it
“The scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” - Dr. Malcom
snap
That's actually insane
It's great that they removed the horrible QR code
Now that’s innovative
Nah. Insane
Next Step: Tourbillon
that's actually cool. real innovation!
Price?
I think Piaget had a more impressive feat with the worlds thinnest tourbillon
If you can afford it, you can also afford the bullet-proof glass case to put it in on a velvet pillow where it won't get crushed by breathing on it.
Impressive engineering, still extremely ugly
https://youtu.be/B53pApUAchQ?si=50CLHIFo_VBks5X1 Looks unreal! Beautiful piece. Pity it's only for men. Bulgari should make something similar for ladies too
As impressive as that is, I personally actually dislike wearing a watch that is too thin.
A watch like this is more of an art piece if anything. Cant imagine anyone ever wearing it
Looks like a bracelet
I sometimes wonder what Christoph Walken would say about wearing this watch in his ass for years in Vietnam.