Bulgari's watchmaking identity has consolidated around the Octo Finissimo and its stack of thinness records, but the brand keeps a second, older design statement in the catalogue. The Aluminium arrived in 1998 as a deliberate provocation, a luxury watch in aluminium and rubber at a time when aluminium meant bezel inserts rather than cases. For summer 2026 the collection adds two 40mm references on white rubber, presented by Monochrome Watches on 8 July: an Ice Blue dial limited to 500 pieces, ref. 104309, and an unlimited White version, ref. 104335. Both cost EUR 3,700.
From provocation to staple
The design language is older than the material. In 1977 the Bulgari Bulgari put the brand name twice on the bezel, a gesture borrowed from the inscriptions on ancient Roman coins, and turned the logo into the design itself. The sporty Diagono chronograph followed in 1988, and a decade later the unisex Aluminium pushed the idea into industrial materials. The 2020 relaunch kept the concept and modernised the execution: mechanical automatic movements, water resistance up from 30m to 100m, a more scratch-resistant aerospace-grade aluminium alloy, reshaped lugs, and a titanium caseback and crown. The current collection spans time-and-date, GMT and chronograph models, and the summer duo is built on the 40mm time-and-date platform.
Two dials, one palette
Both references wear the signature rubber bezel with the double BVLGARI engraving, here in white, matched by an integrated white rubber strap with sandblasted aluminium central links and a pin buckle. The Ice Blue dial is sun-brushed, with large Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 and baton markers, all coated in blue varnish along with the hour and minute hands. The central seconds hand carries a red lacquered tip and a red ring counterweight, the one sporting accent on the watch. The caseback of the Ice Blue is engraved Limited Edition, with the run capped at 500 pieces. The White version goes the other way, an opaline dial with rhodium-plated indices and hands and white lacquered accents on the seconds hand. Both models put Super-LumiNova on the tips of the hour and minute hands and a date window at 3 o'clock, and both cases measure 9.4mm thick with 100m of water resistance.
B77 inside
The Aluminium sits at the entry of Bulgari's mechanical range and the movement matches the brief: the calibre B77 is built on a Sellita SW300 base, an architecture equivalent to the ETA 2892, running at 28,800vph with a 42-hour power reserve and hidden behind the solid titanium back. The argument for the watch was never the calibre. It is the case concept, the 9.4mm profile, and the fact that aluminium and rubber still read as unmistakably Bulgari 28 years after the first one.
The scarcity is the only premium
The detail collectors will notice is the pricing. The limited Ice Blue and the unlimited White carry the same EUR 3,700 list, so the 500-piece cap is the entire differential. That is unusual in a market where limited editions habitually carry a surcharge, and it makes the choice a clean one: the summery blue with a number on the back, or the white that will stay in the catalogue. Availability is through Bulgari boutiques and bulgari.com.
