Bulgari rolls out a brace of watches meant only for Maserati owners.

by James Buttery

If you blinked around the end of June you might have missed a rather interesting watch at Goodwood. Customers ordering the latest iteration of Maserati?s GranTurismo and GranCabrio models during the famed Festival of Speed were presented with an exclusive limited edition Octo GranTurismo from Bulgari, Maserati?s watch partner since 2012.
The black DLC watch, limited to 30 pieces, brought together two signature Bulgari elements, namely a retrograde minute scale and jumping hours – themselves vestiges of the house style of Daniel Roth which Bulgari acquired along with sister brand Gerald Genta in 2000. The watch clearly set out to imitate the Maserati?s rev counter and gear selection displays.
A zero to six retrograde minutes scale (complete with a rev-counter style ?min x10? annotation) ran clockwise from the traditional six o?clock to one o?clock positions, whilst a jumping hour numeral was displayed within a round aperture at the three o?clock above a Maserati Trident applique.
The watch was badged as an exclusive, and as a limited edition it was, but no-one develops an entirely new mechanical platform for a promotional giveaway, even if the cost of entry (for the Maserati) starts at £91,000. So now Bulgari has revealed two new watches based around this design with two distinctly different aesthetics.

While the Octo Maserati GranLusso and GranSport are ostensibly the same ...