Music To Our Ears

Tuned to a symphony of dramatic musical notes, Bvlgari's latest Octo Roma chiming watches are like nothing you've heard before.

- Alvin Wong

THERE’S A SEQUENCE of notes, known as tritones, which sounds so ominous that churches once prohibited it from being played during the medieval and renaissance periods. Today, musicians call it, rather appropriately, the ‘devil’s interval’. And you’d probably recognise this sequence of notes, too, in classical pieces by Igor Stravinsky, or the intro to Enter Sandman by Metallica.

Harnessing the darkness and intrigue these notes are known to evoke, Bvlgari presents a trio of chiming watches that sounds like nothing else on the market today. Unveiled at Geneva Watch Week 2024, the Octo Roma Grande Sonnerie Tourbillon, Octo Roma Carillon Tourbillon and Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater Carbon allow their owners to activate their chiming mechanisms to sound out the time— with a twist of thrilling tritones.

“The purpose of this combination of notes is primarily the dissonance. It strongly contrasts with the modern preference for consonant harmonic intervals,” explains Lorenzo Viotti. The 34-year-old Lausanne-born conductor, who helms the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, was enlisted by Bvlgari to help develop the chiming watches’ melodic sequence. Suffice to say, the fruits of the collaboration are music to watch connoisseurs’ ears.

On The Playlist

With the three watches, Bvlgari effectively covers the essential ground in chiming watches. The