In 1975, Bulgari commissioned GĂ©rald Genta, fresh off his Royal Oak (1972) and Patek Philippe Nautilus (1976, designed 1974), to produce a limited-edition watch as a 100-piece gift for the jeweller's most important clients. Bulgari was at the time a celebrated Roman goldsmith and jeweller rather than a watch brand, and the family wanted a wristwatch that translated the visual identity of the maison directly onto the wrist. Genta's solution was a round case with a wide flat bezel double-engraved "BVLGARI BVLGARI", with the typeface and layout echoing the inscriptions on Roman imperial coinage (the sort bearing "CAESAR AVGVSTVS" around the edge of a denarius).
The 100 presentation pieces were distributed in late 1975 and early 1976. The response was so enthusiastic that Bulgari released the design publicly in 1977 as the Bulgari Roma, and soon afterward renamed it the Bulgari Bulgari (abbreviated by collectors as BB). It became the first Bulgari reference sold through the brand's own boutiques, directly precipitating the formation of Bulgari Time SA in Neuchâtel in 1980 as the formal watchmaking arm. Within a decade the BB had sold in meaningful numbers and redefined what a jeweller's watch could look like: not the gem-set decoration of the Geneva tradition but a confident, architectural, near-industrial piece of Italian design.
The Bulgari Bulgari has been in continuous production longer than any other Italian luxury watch. The family has expanded through dozens of variants: ladies sizes from 23mm, men's sizes through 41mm, tourbillons, chronographs, solo-tempo references in rose gold, chocolate dials, Bulgari-tantalum cases (1999, one of the earliest luxury tantalum watches), and the contemporary Bulgari Bulgari Roma limited-editions that reference the original 1975 piece. A 2013 design refresh under creative director Fabrizio Buonamassa sharpened the bezel engraving and tightened the proportions without breaking the Genta silhouette.
Alongside the main Bulgari Bulgari family sits the related Octo Finissimo collection (launched 2014, designed by Buonamassa based on Genta's earlier Octo design), which has held successive world records for the thinnest mechanical watch since 2014 and won Aiguille d'Or at the Geneva Grand Prix d'Horlogerie in 2014. In-house movements have anchored the line from the BVL 191 automatic to the ultra-thin BVL 138 (2.23mm thick) that powers the Octo Finissimo Automatic. Retail for the core Bulgari Bulgari runs from approximately $5,400 (steel 38mm) through $15,000 (rose gold) to $35,000+ (tantalum and complicated variants). Nearly fifty years after the first 100-piece gift, the BB is still Bulgari's best-selling watch family.
