Talking Time: Fabrizio Buonomassa Stigliani, Bulgari

The design director spearheading Bulgari’s watch developments is all about the long game

- Varun Godinho

THE BULGARI OCTO Finissimo Tourbillion is a firecracker. This single timepiece decimated three world records in one deft swoop at Baselworld this year. Upon its release, it simultaneously became the world’s thinnest automatic watch, the world’s thinnest automatic tourbillon and the world’s thinnest tourbillon.

Take note: It took on more than worthy adversaries in Piaget and Audemars Piguet to break those records. Piaget previously held the world record for the world’s thinnest automatic watch, which it set with the Altiplano Automatic in 2017 and Audemars Piguet previously held the record for the world’s thinnest automatic tourbillion, a record it set 32 years ago.

“Before the Bulgari Finissimo, this segment of ultra-thin watches was a little bit of a sleeping beauty. But after Bulgari and after the Finissimo, many prestigious brands have revisited this category and introduced concept watches. It shows that Bulgari is a trendsetter,” says Fabrizio Buonomassa Stigliani, director of the watch design centre at Bulgari’s Swiss watchmaking headquarters in Neuchatel.

Buonomassa, who we meet during his recent visit to Dubai, is playing the long game. He is the man turning the incredibly thin wheels behind the scenes as the overall design chief for all Bulgari watches. He’s not only sketching the design of the watch that will appear on your wrist this time next year, but also imagining the watch that will show up on your wrist half-a-decade from now.

“Sometimes the time taken for watches to go to the market are the same as cars or even longer,” says the man who was responsible for designing the interiors of the Alfa Romeo and Lancia, before joining Bulgari in 2000.