Diva Finissima Minute Repeater – the world’s thinnest minute repeater movement in a ladies’ watch

 

High-end ladies’ watches: Bvlgari Diva Finissima Minute Repeater raises a majestic ode to artistry by chiming the precious happy moments on demand.

Diva Finissima Minute Repeater is a Bulgari watch celebrating a century of watchmaking and jewellery expertise, masterfully expressed through daring gem setting and a dial embellished by gold-spangled Urushi lacquer.

Beating at its heart is the world’s thinnest minute repeater movement in a ladies’ watch, Finissima, an evolved version of the famous Finissimo Minute Repeater movement presented by Bvlgari at Baselworld 2016 in the Octo collection.

This watchmaking wonder celebrates the first Bvlgari creations dating back to 1918 in the form of exquisitely beautiful platinum jewellery watches adorned with magnificent diamonds.

Since then, Bvlgari has asserted itself as one of the key players in the realm of high-end ladies’ watches, notably with its Serpenti and Lvcea collections.

Demurely concealing its ability to tell the time to music, the world-first Diva Finissima chimes a crystal-clear tune on demand, once the mechanism is activated by a gemset charm whirling in step with its owner’s wrist movements.

The enchantingly refined Diva Finissima is graced with an exceptionally slim 18kt rose gold 37mm-diameter case. Its delightful design is softened by tapered lugs whose voluptuous curves are accentuated by brilliant-cut diamonds, while an 18kt rose gold winding crown set with a splendid facetted diamond offers a counterpoint to these gently rounded shapes. The quintessential jewellery watch – belonging to a collection that has demonstrated the wealth of variations on the theme of artistic crafts and elegance – naturally deserved a dial worthy of its splendour.

This true face of the watch is thus crafted from Urushi lacquer, in harmony with the finest Japanese tradition, by an experienced artisan well accustomed to all its subtle characteristics. During an entire month, ten or so layers of beautifully shimmering plant-based lacquer are applied to the dial plate. Each operation calls for deft brush strokes, followed after a 48-hour drying process by accurate and delicate polishing with a cotton pad and stag-horn powder. To achieve a perfectly dense yet diaphanous cloud of gold spangles, the latter are sieved through a bamboo shoot and expertly sprinkled across the surface, while the last layer is coated with transparent lacquer designed to increase the visual depth effect characterising the Urushi technique.

“Bvlgari does it again! The thinnest minute repeater for women brings music to your ears and pleasure to the eyes,” wrote monochrome-watches.com. 

“The Diva Finissima Minute Repeater is an example of a relatively rare kind of watch: a ladies’ watch with a very feminine design and very decorative purpose which not only cuts no corners in the movement, but actually uses one of the most extraordinary complicated movements on the market today. The dial is decorated with Japanese urushi lacquer, sprinkled with gold dust (the technique is known as maki-e),” said hodinkee in the review of the feminine timepiece from the luxury Italian house.

Finally, the Bvlgari’s gemsetters fit tiny diamond hour-markers on this miniature painting featuring motifs that are always unique and a surface destined to stand the test of time.

Diva Finissima Minute Repeater by Bvlgari is one of the 72 pre-selected watches competing for the 18th Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). The winners will be announced on Friday November 9th at the 18th GPHG prize-giving. The 72 pre-selected watches, divided into 12 categories, are competing to win one of the 16 prizes that will salute the year’s finestwatch creations, including the prestigious Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix.