Another day, another stunning timepiece has joined the fast-expanding collection of rare and highly collectible watches owned by Mark Zuckerberg. Spotted on the wrist of the centi-billionaire in the latest tech update video on Instagram, Zuckerberg’s latest acquisition is the most complex and expensive timepiece to join his collection unless he was the mystery buyer who splurged $8.3 million on the second wristwatch ever made by F.P. Journe.
It’s becoming a habit for Zuckerberg to wear a new noteworthy timepiece for each of the latest videos uploaded on Instagram. Nevertheless, the timepiece in question is the jaw-dropping Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC, a record-setting watch that was launched earlier this year.
With a thickness of just 1.7mm, the Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC set the record for the world’s thinnest watch. It managed to break the record of Richard Mille’s RM UP-01 Ferrari by a mere 0.05mm, which was set two years ago. The Bulgari timepiece is the pinnacle of the luxury brand’s constant pursuit to challenge the limits of horological engineering and attain extreme thinness, something that began in 2014.
Every year since then, Bulgari has been churning out ultra-thin watches, setting new world records along the way. Two years ago, the Italian fashion brand introduced the 1.8mm thin Octo Finissimo Ultra, which held the record for the world’s thinnest watch for a few months before being usurped by the Richard Mille timepiece. The newest record-setting creation by Bulgari is an evolution of the same timepiece.
Bulgari has not only recaptured the world record from Richard Mille but also upped the stakes by COSC-certifying the new Ultra. What that means is Zuckerberg’s newest watch is also the thinnest chronometer-certified watch ever made. The architecture, dial layout, and overall design of the ultra-thin watch haven’t changed much. The most noticeable visual change comes in the form of the new pattern on the mainspring barrel. While the Ultra from 2022 featured a QR code linked to a dedicated NFT, the latest version is decorated with a Datamatrix, which allows the owners to obtain the full details of the Ultra through photos, video, and other data.
The extreme thinness of the watch is attained by using the caseback as a mainplate for the movement. All the one hundred and seventy components of manually wound movement powering the watch are assembled and built into the caseback. To make the caseback as strong as possible to protect it against warping, it is made from tungsten carbide, an extremely hard and dense material.
Additionally, getting the COSC certification for the movement was a massive challenge. Bulgari managed to shave off 0.1mm from the watch by reworking the titanium case and optimizing the sapphire crystal.
A few months after the Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC was launched, Russian independent brand Konstantin Chaykin unveiled a watch called the ThinKing, which is even thinner. It measures just 1.65mm thick. However, it’s a prototype and not for sale at the moment.
Bulgari’s record-setting watch is limited to just 20 examples, each priced at $635,000 (600,000 Euros]. While the Richard Mille RM UP-01 Ferrari has been a favorite with celebrities, it’s hardly a surprise that Zuckerberg went for the Bulgari piece, considering its credentials. This begs us to question: what’s next for the Meta CEO?
