Bulgari adds another ultra-thin watchmaking record to its growing list of achievements, as it creates the world’s thinnest automatic chronograph
By Chris Hall

Thanks to the competing efforts of just a couple of the watch world’s top tier brands – really it’s just Piaget, Bulgari and occasionally the likes of Jaeger-LeCoultre and Audemars Piguet – we are living in a golden age for ultra-thin watchmaking. If it thrills you to see something that’s already difficult done with added constraints (like blindfolded waterskiing, or chess-boxing, perhaps) then this really should tick your boxes. In addition to making the thinnest minute repeater, the thinnest tourbillon watch and the thinnest automatic watch, Bulgari now can say it makes the thinnest chronograph watch – and by some margin.  The previous holder of that title is a fine piece of watchmaking in itself; the Piaget Altiplano Chronograph, which made its debut back in 2014. That watch measures 8.24mm thick, which is definitely pretty impressive for a chronograph – the need to mount the chronograph works on top of the main gear trains will always remain and account for a significant percentage of the movement’s, and by extension the watch’s thickness overall. But get this: the Bulgari Octo Finissimo chronograph comes in at just 6.9mm thick and it’s an automatic where the Piaget is hand-wound. That’s a major step. 

Making that possibl...