WINDING Lines

Bvlgari's Tubogas is in the spotlight as the Italian luxury house unveils a NEW JEWELLERY COLLECTION centred around the distinctive tubular strap and bracelet.

- TAN WEI LIN

Along with Bvlgari's iconic Serpenti, the Tubogas has become one of the style hallmarks that immediately identifies a watch or jewellery design as a creation of the Italian house. An innovation in jewellerymaking with its flexible form, the coiled metal bracelet has been an inseparable part of Bvlgari's designs for decades.

Here's a fact that might surprise you: The Tubogas was actually inspired and named after the articulated gas pipes that were used to transport pressurised gas in the 1920s.

It's fascinating how ideas from an unexpected source like industrial equipment can be turned into beautiful jewellery and this was one of the many that contributed to Bvlgari's impressive breadth of creativity.

The jeweller wasn't the only one to experiment with the Tubogas technique-in the 1940s, several houses did the same-but it certainly was the most successful at it. The brand's ties to Tubogas were firmly sealed when it crafted a supple bracelet with the technique for its very first Serpenti jewellery watch in 1948, officially creating an iconic design that would become part of its identity.

By the 1970s, the Tubogas had become a true signature of the brand as it found its way into a range of Bvlgari creations from the Monete, Serpenti, Parentesi and Bvlgari Bvlgari collections. Its versatility is fully expressed in the diversity of the designs it has been applied to—from the elaborate and eclectic to the modern and minimalistic.