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Brand: | Bulgari | 
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| Family: | |||
| Height: | 1.95 mm | ||
| Jewels: | 24 | ||
| Reserve: | 55 hours | ||
| Frequency: | 21,600 A/h | ||
| Winding: | Automatic, Peripheral Automatic Winding | ||
| Diameter: | 36.60 mm (16 ligne) | ||
| © Bulgari The peripheral winding rotor is the key to this, the thinnest automatic ever | Complications: | Flying Tourbillon, Tourbillon | |
| Hands: | Central Hour Hand, Central Minute Hand, Open Heart at 6:00 | ||
| Distinguishing Technical Characteristics | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ultra-Thin Automatic Tourbillon  Tourbillon  Balance Bridge  Microstella Balance |
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| Production: 2018 – 2020 | |||||||||||
| 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
Cal. BVL 288 was the thinnest automatic tourbillon movement ever produced when it was introduced in 2018 by Bulgari. This movement matched the height of the pioneering Cal. BVL 268 despite the automatic winding mechanism, beating the Piaget Altiplano (introduced just a few months earlier) and classic Jean Lassale JL2000 of the 1970s. Thanks to an incredibly thin case, the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic watch was both the thinnest tourbillon and thinnest automatic watch at just 3.95 mm overall.
Automatic winding is accomplished with a peripheral rotor to reduce overall height. The rotor is made of aluminum and white gold so it will rotate eccentrically but make a complete circle. Because the movement is so thin (1.95 mm), a safety pusher at 4:00 moves the rotor out of the way to allow the winding stem to set the time.
The original Octo Finissimo Tourbillon, Cal. BVL 268, had a novel system of mounting the wheel train using ball bearings, with just 11 jewels used. Although this Cal. BVL 288 is the same overall size and adds the complex automatic winding mechanism, it uses 24 conventional jewels.
Bulgari does not publish the diameter of its movements, but it is regularly reported that it measures 36.60 mm like the micro-rotor automatic Cal. BVL 138.
To date, Bulgari has not produced a skeletonized version of Cal. BVL 288. This is likely due to concerns about reliability of the complicated movement. The original Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic watch had a solid caseback for strength, with only a small aperture at the back to view the tourbillon. The 2019 Carbon model, however, includes a fully transparent caseback due to the use of Carbon Thin Ply (CTP) in the case construction.
Cal. BVL 288 Applications
Cal. BVL 288 has only been used in the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon from 2018 through early 2020. It is no longer listed in the catalog as of August 2020. These were limited-edition watches made only for a short time.
- 2018-2019 Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic (50 examples)
- 2019-2020 Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tourbillon Automatic Carbon