Beyond Time: The Authorised History Of Bulgari Watches
300 pages, 8 chapters written by the greatest names of Bulgari, friends, ambassadors, and experts of the brand. "Beyond Time", the only authorised history of Bulgari watchmaking, will be published in September 2023 by Assouline. This marks a first for the Manufacture, which is celebrating more than 100 years of Roman-inspired watchmaking creativity.
Beyond Time does more than to summarise a century of watchmaking savoir-faire: it is the sum total of all Bulgari has ever achieved in the domain of horology since the 1920s. An authoritative reference work on the brand’s singular “Horologico-Roman” and jewellery-inspired creativity, it is the product of years of research, authored by the company’s greatest specialists and featuring hundreds of original, captivating illustrations.
The book, published by Assouline, will be available in September 2023. It opens a far-reaching panorama on the watchmaking artistry of the Maison that became a Manufacture. It weaves the past with the present, heritage with innovation, and, in its final chapter, looks ahead to technologies that will, in time, enhance the reality and experience of horology.
The editorial approach is unprecedented: it engages in conversations between ‘the Bulgari watch’ and renowned authors, connects the brand’s collections with cinema directors, athletes, experts and conductors. And why? Because a Bulgari watch is, by its very nature, many things. It is Serpenti; it is Bulgari Bulgari; it is Octo; it is Grande Complication. It is both high watchmaking and high jewellery. Unpredictable, impertinent, combining Italian flair with Swiss watchmaking mastery, ‘the Bulgari watch’ is not easily captured. Hence, for Beyond Time, the idea of approaching the multiple facets of this kaleidoscope from different angles, different voices.
When the subject turns to the 8 world records set by the Octo Finissimo, who better to sit down with than Carl Lewis, one of the greatest sprinters of all time and winner of 9 Olympic medals? A particular life philosophy, the relentless training, the will to surpass oneself, setting one record after another: when it comes to ‘high level’, the trajectories of Carl Lewis and Bulgari converge towards the same degree of perfection.
Likewise, Rahul Kadakia, famed auctioneer and international director of Christie's jewellery department, too, offers an interesting perspective. He has sold some of the world's most important jewellery creations, including many of the personal pieces that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor, a Bulgari icon and close friend of the brand. His collection, his tastes, his image, his poise and presence have largely influenced the fascination with jewellery that for decades has been and continues to be identified with the Bulgari universe. No one else could speak to it better than Rahul Kadakia.
It would be a perilous exercise to list all the greats who share their impressions in Beyond Time, lest one went uncredited. Let us mention actor and director Alessandro Gassmann, who draws a bold parallel between living in his native Rome and inhabiting Time, an indispensable exercise in his role as an actor but also as a director; or maestro Lorenzo Viotti for the connection he sees between conducting an orchestra and a Manufacture; or the artist Marina Abramović, who reminds us of the millennia-old analogy between the Serpenti collection and the animal, the snake, whose form evokes the Great Wall of China and whose legend spans millennia and continents.
Ultimately, the 35 cm, 300-page work, published in English by Assouline, becomes the cornerstone upon which rest almost 100 years of Swiss-Italian watchmaking history, and upon which a future no less daring and iconoclastic may be built.
Photo: PR Bulgari
