Bulgari first forayed into watchmaking with the time-only Serpenti in the 1940s, but has since become a major player producing more avant-garde timepieces, like the Octo Finissimo Ultra. We spoke to Antoine Pin while he was still Managing Director of the Bulgari Watch Division, shortly before he was made chief executive of TAG Heuer.
Why did a Roman jeweller settle in Switzerland's Neuchatel in 1977, and how is it contributing to the industry? The beauty of being a Metic, in the Greek sense of the word, a foreigner with some of the privileges of citizenship, is that we are constantly asking ourselves this question, and it has helped us find our positioning, which is to build on our Italian identity and our roots as a jeweller. This of course is what makes our watches so different. Italian design makes no arbitration between the functionality of an item and its beauty. Philosophically we believe that what is beautiful is what is just; it is a notion of equanimity and balance. The Italians say bello and benfatto, and we believe that what we do well will be beautiful. So, for us, design comes intrinsically with functionality.
Is that why you are also one of the few brands to have a Creative Director? Exactly. This is something you normally associate with the fashion industry or the jewellery industry, but it is unique in the watch industry. There are design studios, design directors, marketing directors, even chief executives driving the creative direction, but we believe the function of creative direction is fundamentally different and vital for setting the overall direction.
How would you say Bulgari has moved the industry? I would say it is our philosophy of functionality being beautiful. No one embodies this better than Leonardo da Vinci because, after all, he is as famous for his engineering as his art. The Renaissance era was marked by profound technical innovation, and I believe we emphasise this interconnection between form and function more than any other brand today.
It is unusual for jewellers to achieve success in men's watches, but Bulgari has done it. Why do you think that is? Our watch sales today are around two thirds women and one third men. The historic success of Bulgari watches has come from one-of-a-kind jewellery pieces based on the Roma, St. Moritz and other models before the expansion of the company, and the commercial success has been based on men's lines, including the many sports lines that came in the 1990s. Octo is a different moment, as it breaks from the past of Bulgari being an assembler, and it has helped establish us as a cutting-edge manufacturer.
How important was it that the Octo Finissimo Ultra ranks as the world's thinnest mechanical watch? Very, because it establishes who we are. We would have no purpose if we just copied what others are doing, so it was imperative we went our own way. That is why we came out with a watch that is not just the world's thinnest but has a strong notion of elegance and aesthetics. The world of haute horlogerie has always been about pushing the envelope, and we embrace that in our own way. We cannot be experts in everything. Rolex has cornered the market in terms of precision, so the space we stake as our own is in the delivery of the best chronometric performance within the smallest volume, and this suits a brand that makes women's watches, especially as so few brands develop unique calibres for women.
How important are watches to Bulgari's overall business? I cannot get into specifics, but while first and foremost we are a jeweller, watches are now the second most important business for the brand, and there is still a lot more potential to grow. Let us imagine we produce like Audemars Piguet, meaning 50,000 watches a year, and even with, let us say, a billion dollars in sales, you are still only four per cent of the market.
