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cvalue13
·i still wonder who designed the octo. hope that info someday comes to light. as i think that beyond the brand intervention there is some very talented person behind such lines.
Well, there’s not a clear-cut answer. But the short version:
When Bulgari purchased Gerald Genta (the manufacturer) in 2000, it acquired the designs owned by the company. Gerald Genta (the man) had long played with octagons in his designs: just look at the Royal Oak (and even the Nautilus if you squint). The same spirit of that octagonal theme could be seen in a number of 80s/90s models designed by Gerald Genta (the man) and made by Gerald Genta (the manufacturer) . One of those Genta-designed 90s models could be seen as the first generation Octo, but no doubt the modern day Octo would be unrecognizable except in DNA.
The modern Octo has more obvious lineage back in the 2012 Octo generation, produced by once Genta (manufacturing) facilities in Switzerland but now owned and meanwhile designed by the Bulgari style department back in Italy. Because Bulgari’s style department is/was an in-house design department (largely concerned with jewelry design), I personally suspect there’s no one Octo design mastermind.
That said, this being the 10th anniversary of the modern Octo line, Bulgari this year released two limited edition Octo Finissimo that specifically print on the titanium dial a reproduction of the first design sketches of the Octo 3-hand and chrono variants.
In connection with this LE release, there was much press playing up the Octo design as being that of Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, ED of product at Bulgari.
Here’s a marketing piece and capture from it:
“The gentlemen responsible for the designs, and the drawings, is Bulgari's Product Creation Executive Director, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani. Stigliani was born in Naples and trained as an industrial designer and his first love was automotive design. His designs always begin with hand-executed sketches, and I've been able to watch him draw on several occasions. It's fascinating to observe – like all great draughtsmen the repertoire of shapes and proportions with which he works are ingrained neurologically in muscle memory, and his drawings come to life with fluidity, grace, and precision.”
Despite this marketing around the LE, the truth is the Octo heavily trades on the underlying Gerald Genta influences (both the man and the manufacturer), while also being in some ways a product of various Bulgari-designed intermediate designs after the 2000 acquisition but before the 2012 release of the modern Octo line. That modern Octo line, though, was “designed” by Stigliani according to the marketing around the LE.
Unlike the Nautilus, Royal Oak or other purely Genta designs where the man was given a brief and there can be no doubt every facet was in his first sketch, the modern Octo is more a “collaborative” effort - let’s call it - with no singular hand seeming due all the credit.
Edited:
