According to my Google search history the first time I searched 'bulgari' was November 17th. I genuinely don't know if I had even looked twice at this watch before. If so it's by far the most impulsive buy I've made. And I'm very glad of it.
However, it's not too dissimilar to a watch I've wanted for a good number of years - the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. Gerald Genta's iconic (actually iconic) integrated bracelet design in the 70s is a little polarising, but the trend for these industrial looking hunks of metal has never gone away, and is very much in vogue this year. I bought a tissot prx to help itch the scratch, didn't work. Nice watch though. Funnily this year I've spent Royal Oak MSRP money on a bunch of watches and could flip them for one. Except that Royal Oaks now go for like 35k. Plus I'm not sure I feel comfortable wearing such an expensive piece as a daily, and only 50m water resistance, not great for swimming which I do a fair bit of on holiday.
Aaaanyway, this now discontinued Bulgari (Bvlgari?) Octo Solotempo 38mm is probably as close as I'll get to owning a Royal Oak, at least for a few years. Bulgari bought the Gerald Genta watch company in 2000 including the design to this watch, I think, so it's kind of his, which I like. 38mm but wears bigger than my 40mm submariner 114060, the in house movement that's nothing special, gorgeous articulated bracelet with pins (not split pins) and no micro adjust which is mildly annoying, but how it catches the light… 100m water resistance, date, screw down crown, double butterfly clasp… I've seen 2 of these on reddit in the last month so they're not that rare, but there are no blue dials currently for sale on the bracelet on chrono24 so they're definitely not common. I suspect resale may be tricky, and expensive, so I'd better hold onto this one for a while. I paid less than a new Octo Roma, which is the 41mm replacement model, and far less attractive to me. This case is just fantastic.
I bought this 2019 model about an hour ago having never seen one in person let alone tried it on, but I'm very happy so far.
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Originally Posted by geoffbot
