Tadao Ando’s Unexpected Take on a Bulgari Icon Honors Nature’s Timeline
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Photo: John Gollings/MPavilion.
Bulgari’s new Serpenti watches by Tadao Ando may catch some by surprise. Though the Roman jewelry house and the Japanese Pritzker Prize winner have teamed up before, their latest project marks the first time the brand has invited someone to update the Serpenti: a high-glamour icon beloved by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor. But if Ando’s hallmark minimalism and the timepiece’s cult luxury status sound like strange bedfellows, there’s magic in the unexpected.
Bulgari and Ando first collaborated in 2019 with his reimaginings of the Octo Finissimo, a series that fits complex watchmaking into a shockingly thin case, pushing the technical limits of the craft. The architect’s two limited-edition models, made of titanium and ceramic, married his propensity for simple geometries and his rigorous focus on materiality. A third version followed in 2021, incorporating another Ando signature, a love of the great outdoors, with a blue dial reminiscent of the night sky and a yellow-gold crescent moon at five o’clock. “My buildings are often a mere attempt to recapture the transient beauty of nature we have forgotten living in the city,” the architect explains.
Pulitzer Foundation For The Arts
That pursuit continues with the new Serpenti, available in four dials representing the seasons—green aventurine for summer, tigereye for fall, white mother-of-pearl for winter, and pink mother-of-pearl for spring. (In each instance, small pieces have been assembled into dynamic compositions, with matching cabochon crowns.) The bezels are all lined in 38 diamonds, and the backs engraved with the architect’s signature. The case shape and bracelet, however, are pure Bulgari, with supple Tubogas chains in a range of metals.
“The idea of a new collaboration actually came from Ando,” notes Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, the brand’s creative director of watches. “He wanted to explore a creation inspired by nature.” Together the partners have played to each other’s strengths. Says Ando: “With the Serpenti, a serpent eating its tail, symbolizing the circle of life, I was inspired to express the circle of nature.” bulgari.com
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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