Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani is no stranger to the essence of Italian design. With a bachelor degree in industrial design, learning how to look beyond the aesthetics of individual objects came naturally to him, as he began his career at Bvlgari and joined the watch design theme in 2001.

After his career in Fiat Style Center in Turin and many years of experience in watchmaking at Bvlgari, he explains that cars and watches share a similar attraction and emotions: “The shape of a vehicle must suggest its use, its performance, and in some cases a dream; watches have the same goals but with the added, perhaps harder, challenge of fitting all this in a space 40mm across”.

Today, as the Director of the Bvlgari Watches Design Center, what are his thoughts about the house’s novelties? Let’s find out!

Tell us a little bit about Bvlgari’s novelties for 2018.

This year, we will continue to develop our icon pillars – Octo, Serpenti and LVCEA. These pillars in particular are the most important because they are able to explain the brand in a very important way. For men, we enriched the Octo Finissimo family with two new versions, one in steel and the other in rose gold. Moreover, we continue to introduce new world records through the Finissimo Tourbillon, which is the thinnest automatic watch in the world. As for the ladies, we continue to develop the Serpenti and LVCEA collections. For LVCEA, we introduced the new Tubogas bracelet and a new version of the skeleton movement. These two elements come from our heritage and our archive. In fact, Bulgari introduced the Tubogas bracelet in the forties and for the first time this year we introduce it to this collection. It is something that changes a little bit the way to wear an everyday watch made by jewelry makers. The Tubogas bracelet is very simple and soft, and it is almost the same bracelet that you can find on the Serpenti collection, but the inside spring was replaced with an adjustable link. When it comes to the new version of the skeleton movement, the letters are placed on the movement from the dial’s side, so they act like indexes. And finally, the Serpenti Tubogas and the Serpenti Twist Your Time will be also enriched with new executions.

How much of a role do aesthetics play in the decision of making a new watch, be it for a man or for a woman?

There are two different ways of thinking. Men’s watches are driven by technical features and performance, while women’s watches are driven more by taste and beautiful shapes. So the approach is totally different.

Serpenti is one of Bvlgari’s most iconic watch lines. What is the vision behind it and how does it speak to today’s woman?

Bulgari is a different and unique brand with a lot of science in its archive. Our passion is to play with this kind of science in an unconventional way. Speaking of the Serpenti watch, today we have almost seven different ways to wear it and each time for us was an opportunity to reinvent the brand through science. Each time it is different, starting with the Tubogas and the idea of jewelry pieces to the secret watch and so on. Each time for us is a new way to discover the brand.

In your opinion, which Serpenti is the most successful one and the easiest to wear?

I think the Serpenti Tubogas in steel and gold is the bestseller.

Tell us about LVCEA.

LVCEA is the brand’s new baby. It is just 44 or 45 years old. It is an everyday watch made by jewelry makers and it is even more difficult for us because Bvlgari has different ways to play with shapes. Of course, it finds inspiration in the Serpenti.

Obviously the bracelet is key in every watch, but looking at every watch, it is the face that makes it attractive. How much of that comes into the creation of the watch?

I think it is very important. You have to find the right balance because if you put a lot of attention on the dial, you need a very simple bracelet and a very simple case. If you put the attention on the bracelet, then maybe you need the dial to be very simple. Otherwise, the design will look exaggerated and the clients will receive a lot of information in just one product, which scares them.

What about the high jewelry watches?

High jewelry watches are a very important segment for us. They are the core of the brand. And for the high jewelry watches, our focus is on Serpenti because we will continue to nourish this line starting from the high end. In fact, it is one of the unique features of this brand, because for the Serpenti, we produced just the head of the snake in Switzerland and the rest of the body of the snake comes from our manufacturer in Italy. So this is a perfect combination between the Swiss watchmaking know-how, because we are talking about a Swiss made watch, and the Italian design and craftsmanship.

Visit the Photo Gallery and take a look at Bvlgari’s new timepieces.

Mirella Haddad