Bulgari. A Lady's 18k Tri-Color Gold Coiling Serpent Bracelet Watch
Bulgari. A Lady's 18k Tri-Color Gold Coiling Serpent Bracelet Watch

SIGNED BULGARI, CASE NOS. BB 19 1T AND P.134844, CIRCA 1995

Details
Bulgari. A Lady's 18k Tri-Color Gold Coiling Serpent Bracelet Watch
Signed Bulgari, Case Nos. BB 19 1T and P.134844, Circa 1995
Quartz movement, black dial, applied baton and Arabic numerals, circular case, bezel engraved Bvlgari Bvlgari, snap on case back, 18k pink, yellow, and white gold coiling body forming the tubogas bracelet, case, dial, and movement signed
39mm wide when measuring all three coils together, 19mm wide at the head of the serpent

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Lot Essay

Bulgari dates back to 1884 and was set up by a Greek immigrant to Italy by the name of Sotirio Bulgari who opened his first shop in Rome. At the start of the 20th century, his sons, Constantino and Giorgio, helped him to set up a second shop in Rome and the company grew to become a household name. Today Bulgari is part of the LVMH group, the world's biggest luxury goods maker.

Bulgari introduced its first watch in the form of a snake in the late 1940s. It was born out of the idea to invigorate the company's popular serpent bracelets of the Art Deco period. Since then, the company has come out with a variety of snake-form watches, known as Tubogas models. The term Tubogas actually refers to a very special jewelry technique used by Bulgari, the Tubogas technique. The end result of this technique, in which two long metal wire bands are merged without soldering, is a sleek flexible chain. Literally translating as "gas pipe", the technique was developed during the second half of the 19th century and applied by jewellers until the 1940s. Bulgari began to use the technique in the 1950s with much success, producing beautiful necklaces, bracelets, rings and watches. Since then, it has been a signature feature of many of the company's creations. More recently, Bulgari brought out its modern reinterpretation of the Tubogas watch, calling it Serpenti. Introduced at the Basel Fair in 2010, the new collection is a fusion of the snake motif and the Tubogas bracelet.

In the past, Bulgari sourced the movements for its serpent watches from some of Switzerland's finest makers, including Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin.

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