Bulgari

AN UNCOMPROMISINGLY CONTEMPORARY ICON, BVLGARI'S SERPENTI PAYS TRIBUTE TO ETERNITY

A bold and refined formal pursuit of new interpretations for a charismatic figure from the brand's history

Bulgari and Woman...  An eternal story, a longstanding love affair whose origins go back to the first decades of the 20th century.  It continues today, as intense as ever.  The new Serpenti introduced this year at Baselworld is the most perfect illustration of this story of love.  It coils around the wrist once, twice, or as many   as seven times to become an inseparable whole.  This powerful creation plays with the warm tints of golds or polished steel, and pays tribute to the history that unites Bulgari and Woman.  Time has passed, but nothing has come to cloud the extreme sensitivity to beauty that both have always favored in close complicity.

Serpenti 20 II lies squarely in the tradition of the company's historic legacy.  The reptile figure, the incarnation of eternal youth and immortality in the mythological bestiary, has been an integral part of the Italian jeweller's world for a very long time.  The snake archetype, a symbol of earth and water, knowledge and fertility,  immortality and rebirth  - among its many other attributes,  runs through all of   human history, from the Neolithic era to modern times.

DECADES OF STRIKING CREATIONS

The inexhaustible richness of this representation from the mythological bestiary   has inhabited Bulgari's world since the end of the 1940s.  For several decades, it   has consistently appeared among the most striking of Bulgari's creations.  In an   infinite number of versions wedding polychrome enamels with precious stones, gold and colored gems, the snake is a figure used by jewelry and watch goldsmiths that recurs in the company's catalogue of creations and remains an uncompromisingly contemporary icon.

The new Serpenti 20 II watches - made of yellow gold or steel that coils once or twice around the wrist, accentuated with diamonds depending on the version - expresses their charisma as a bold and refined formal pursuit that combines with another distinctive icon specific to the brand, the Tubogas bracelet.  Twining around the wrist, sensual and playful, Tubogas was developed by Bulgari in the 1950s.  To this day, it remains unique and testifies to the wealth of expertise that this brand alone now commands.

FIVE METERS OF METAL FOR EACH COIL ON THE WRIST

Representing a stylistic signature born of patient craftsmanship, the metal bands - whether of steel or gold - can reach 5 meters in length per coil on the wrist.  They are the product of a long series of preparatory and shaping operations carried out by hand, and are finally assembled using a process only Bulgari has mastered.

The body of this extraordinary bracelet is naturally extended by the watch case - a precious formal evocation of a snake set with 38 brilliants around the perimeter  (0.29ct) in some versions  - and made more conspicuous by the elegant contrast  of the opaline silver­ plated dial with sunburst decoration and by the pink rubellite  cabochon set on the crown.

An iconic high point, this sparkling masterpiece hugs the forearm in its last version having 7 coils of pink gold: a bezel set with 38 diamonds (0.29ct) surrounds a dial pave set with 190 diamonds (0.82 ct) in a dazzling nod to the company's roots as   a jeweler whose history is filled with exceptional creations.

The eternal representation embodied in Serpenti takes on its full iconic significance, and pushes the natural charisma of this masterpiece of the goldsmith's art to its greatest height.  The final result is in proportion to the passion involved in crafting wrist wear that is smoothly flexible and absolutely supple.  This distinctive feature, unique in the world, fits like a second skin.

SERPENT/ I TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

FUNCTIONS:  Hours, minutes

BRACELET:  Single or double  coil in  18K yellow gold, double coil in steel

CASE:  Curved, polished case in 18K yellow gold or steel I, various versions set with brilliant-cut   diamonds (0.29 ct), colour F-G, clarity VVS-VS Crown in 18K yellow gold or steel, set with a rubellite  cabochon Length:  35.00 mm Thickness: 9.00 mm Scratch-resistant, glareproofed sapphire crystal

DIAL:  Opaline silver-plated dial with guilloche work and sunburst finish, Roman numerals and gold-plated hour markers for the yellow gold version

MOVEMENT:  Swiss quartz movement customized for Bulgari, Calibre B033, Frequency:32,768 vibrations/hour Diameter:  11.00 mm Thickness:  2.65 mm

THE SNAKE IN BVLGARI'S WORLD

The origin of wristwatches evoking a snake is associated with the technique used for the Tubogas bracelet.  The first examples date back to the late 1940s.  At that time, the bracelets were in the form of a stylized snake and were made using either the Tubogas technique or gold mesh.

The watch case, evoking the snake's head, was usually square or rectangular. This creation was manufactured in numerous versions and variations, all of which explored the full palette of shapes used in watch and dial design: round, square, octagonal, pear-shaped, cushion, etc., with or without diamonds.

The case was positioned at the end or centre of the Tubogas bracelet coil, which itself range through countless variations including steel, blackened steel, and steel   in combination with gold.  The watch movements were always of the best workmanship, signed by Au de mars Piguet, Jaeger LeCoultre, Movado, or Vacheron Constantin.

The first models that came closer to being a realistic interpretation of a snake appeared in the 1960s.  Bulgari was certainly the jeweler that, in the 20th century, reinterpreted the symbolic values associated with the reptile, when for the first time it offered a wristwatch using the snake as a millennia symbol.

The body of Bulgari's snake watch consisted of many elements assembled into a   whole, simulating the reptile's body.  Making them was a complicated process.  Each was handmade from gold leaf and attached to the others by solid-gold pins. In the enameled versions, they were attached with screws.  The secret of the bracelets' extraordinary flexibility lay in an internal spring made of white gold.  The watch itself was hidden in the snake's head.

The initial models of the 1960s were made exclusively of yellow gold, set with diamonds on the head and tail representing the reptile.  The piece worn by   Elizabeth Taylor and immortalized on her wrist in a photo of the filming of    Cleopatra in 1962 is the most dazzling example of this.  The snake's head is   paved with diamonds.  It has emerald eyes and is decorated with a crest of   marquise-cut diamonds.

In subsequent years, many variations were made, sometimes including creations without a watch.  Though the body always remained gold, the early models' small parts and links grew larger and were enhanced with polygonal decorations made of    diamonds, multicolored enameled motifs or flamboyant combinations of colored enamels: turquoise and white, red and yellow, green, red, black and pale blue.

In addition to this wide variety of enamels, different stones were also used to simulate the snake's eyes-white or yellow diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and pear-cut, marquise or round emeralds.  Of course the length of the bracelet varied, and the most spectacular pieces were undoubtedly those that spiraled around the wrist several times.

The most unusual creations included a gold snake belt with  pink, cream and white enamels and sapphire eyes.  This special-order piece belonged to Diana Vreeland, who at the time was the "queen of fashion."  Her personal notes reveal that during her years as the head of Vogue (1963-1971), she was particularly fascinated by   the snake motif in jewelry. After all, on September 16, 1968, she wrote "Let us    not forget the snake ...  It ought to be on every finger and every wrist, everywhere ... In jewelry, the snake is the symbol of Horus.  We do not see  enough of it ... "

THE TUBOGAS TECHNIQUE, A BVLGARI SIGNATURE

Developed during the second half of the 19th century and used by many jewelers until the 1940s, the Tubogas ("tube of gas") technique was revived by Bulgari in   the 1970s and used to create watches, bracelets, necklaces and rings. The Tubogas became one of the jeweler's trademarks.

The Tubogas is a flexible band of smooth rounded spirals produced with no    soldering.  It requires hours of highly specialized work to make, consisting of    rolling two long bands of metal around a copper or wood cylinder in such a way   that the edges align perfectly to form a single continuous piece without soldering. The cylinder is then removed or dissolved in acid.

These metal bands are remarkably flexible, which made extraordinary results possible.  Among the most spectacular examples are the pieces made of four or five coils (or turns) of Tubogas aligned in succession.  The search for chromatic effects led to the development of creations that alternated yellow, pink and white gold.  In the 1970s, the combination of steel and yellow gold was introduced.  Lengthy technical research was needed to develop this innovation, in order to identify the  type of  steel that would ensure the flexibility of the Tubogas and to obtain a color contrast that would set off the contrast with yellow and red gold.

In addition to the selection of the steel, which was of the type used by the naval, chemical, medical and aeronautical industries, technical issues related to working the metal bands had to be resolved.  These issues pertained specifically to the   metal's high melting temperatures (1300-ISOO"C) and its low malleability in comparison to 18-kt gold.  The term Tubogas was inspired by the very distinctive shape of gas pipes in the 1920s, and by the side exhaust pipes on some of the most prestigious sports cars of the day (Mercedes, Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg).

Combined with precious stones or ancient coins, or simply contrasted with yellow gold, the technological appearance of the Tubogas - which was especially obvious   in the steel versions - was a stylistic element unique to Bulgari that gave rise to unique creations and embodied a unique signature.