STAYING TRUE

In Singapore last month for LVMH Watch Week, FABRIZIO BUONAMASSA STIGLIANI, Bulgari Watch Division's product creation executive director, talks about the latest jewellery watches and his proudest achievements, including the all-new Serpenti Tubogas Infinity with a diamond-set bracelet.

- ALLYSON KLASS

Is there a reason why most of Bulgari's latest ladies' launches haven't veered very much from previous designs?

Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani (FBS): It's deliberate. We don't want to change just for the sake of it. For instance, our aim for the Serpenti Tubogas Infinity was to introduce gemstones to the tubogas bracelet for the first time, while maintaining a design that's familiar to our client. It was important to show the potential of this new collection and yet, we didn't want to change the aesthetic of one of our most iconic products. The idea for this new iteration was to present a new variable of the tubogas step by step, starting with these two novelties with diamonds on the bracelet.

How are the diamonds set onto the Serpenti Tubogas Infinity bracelet? FBS: It wasn't possible to place them on the original tubogas because the gold that wound around the spring was too shallow to set any stones on it. The new models still have the flexible spring within, but what's different here is that we have a solid link (think a narrow rectangle with rounded corners), with a hole in the middle that we can thread through individually to create the bracelet.

As you can see, the neck of the watch is wide and it tapers to a narrow tail, so there are numerous links of varying widths on the bracelet. We need to produce many links in different sizes to achieve the single and double-coil bracelets.

How are the diamonds set onto the Serpenti Tubogas Infinity bracelet?