Bulgari Serpenti Tubogas Bracelet Watch
$22,500
A refined and abstract design by Bulgari, Rome, this 1970s Serpenti watch is set into a coiled bracelet composed of highly flexible gold. Designed to wrap like a serpent around the arm, the spiraling bracelet is formed of tubogas links simulating the supple body of a snake, tapering at the tail and completed at the head by a watch with black oval dial and Arabic and abstract numeral indicators that encloses a mechanical movement. Highly prized for its superb construction, the Serpenti watch is a stylish and original choice for a wristwatch: beautiful, modernist, and practical.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: W-19953
Artist: Bulgari, Rome
Country: Italy
Circa: 1970s
Size: 15.50” length, 0.75” width
Materials: 18K Gold (weighing 87.3 grams including crystal and mechanical movement); Together with signed, structured fold-over leather presentation pouch
Signed: “BVLGARI G.1221.4 7877”
Literature: For several Serpenti Tubogas bracelet-watches of this design, which were featured in the 2016 exhibition at the Museo di Roma along with work by modernist artists such as Calder and Nikki de Sant-Phalle, see SERPENTIform, Art Jewelry Design, by Bulgari Heritage Curator Lucia Boscaini, pp. 210-213; Further, a Serpenti Tubogas watch is pictured in Bulgari, by Daniella Mascetti and Amanda Triossi, Abbeyville Press, 1996, p. 155
The Serpenti has been a source of continual inspiration and a rich subject for re-invention for Bulgari designers since the bracelet-watch’s invention in the 1940s. Whether of abstract form, as this example, or elaborately naturalistic enamel and gem-set versions, beloved of Liz Taylor, the superb construction and soft, comfortable, life-like feel are amazing. They must be tried on and worn to be believed.