Bvlgari Brings An Ode to Joy With Magnifica

Bvlgari’s new Magnifica luxury watch and high jewellery collection is a love letter to all things big, bold, and most of all – beautiful…

If post-lockdown life is all about leaving behind the minimal, causal and austere in favour of opulence, luxury and grandeur, then Bvlgari’s mammoth new Magnifica collection of 350 stunning jewels and watches is the absolute epitome of ‘go big’ or ‘go home’.

Roman Ruby Ring, POA, Bvlgari High Jewellery

Giant gems in bold hues is the running theme, and the Bvlgari woman is the inspiration along with muses like: early Roman feminist Hortensia, Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka, architect Zaha Hadid and 17th century Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

The collection is also an ode to joy, Mauro Di Roberto, chief of Bvlgari’s jewellery division in Rome tells Bazaar. “The brand’s purpose is to make people happy. When you’re selling a product that is not a primary necessity, it must give you joy, it must be very much in line with what your lifestyle is,” he explains. “You need to be able to see yourself with it because it reflects your personality, not only because you like that stone. I think we’ve always said through the years that we are a happy and joyful company – that’s the ambition. We sell a product. We sell a dream,” he says with a smile.

Mediterranean Queen Necklace, POA, Bvlgari High Jewellery

And the Magnifica pieces are indeed dreamlike. The Ruby Metamorphosis watch is the most expensive timepiece that Bvlgari has ever produced. Crafted from platinum, this one-of-a-kind piece took 1,650 hours to complete. The delicate dial is concealed by a cover which houses the centrepiece of the watch: an antique cushion-cut 6.3 carat Mozambique ruby. The decadence continues with 48 more rubies, this time baguette-cut, mingled in with 146 baguette diamonds all along the bracelet.

For the Celestial Sky watch, the mounted stone on the dial cover is a vibrantly beautiful blue 6-carat Sri Lanka sapphire. In addition, the bracelet is gracefully adorned with diamonds, sapphires and 10 large tourmaline beads.

Fiorever Lace Necklace, POA, Bvlgari High Jewellery 

And the common denominator across all the new watches and the jewellery pieces? It’s their bold beauty – this collection is not for the faint of heart. The sheer number of stones in each piece and the gargantuan size of the centrepieces are meant to stand out. Behold the five breathtaking oval cushion-cut Paraiba tourmalines, weighing a hefty 500 carats in total that hold court on the Mediterranean Queen necklace, a piece that took 2,400 hours to construct. In turn, marvel at the Imperial Spinel necklace that showcases the fourth largest known spinel in the world at its core, highlighted by a cascading stream of diamonds and emerald beads.

Precious Weave Ring, POA, Bvlgari High Jewellery 

“I think, [as well as] an ode to joy, it’s also a note from nature when you look at some of these natural gems and their colour,” remarks Mauro, who has been a part of the Bvlgari family for 33 years. “The purity is really something that comes to mind but it’s more than just the magic that these unique gems bring to the pieces. If you look at the stone, you have the luminosity, you have the brilliancy, but I think the craftsmanship that’s behind making that product, and the difficulties, and the pain that the jewellers [go through] every time they would show us the work in progress, that’s what’s most dear to me.”

Paraiba Echoes Bracelet, POA, Bvlgari High Jewelry 

He’s not wrong, whereas some of the most intricate pieces have taken almost a year and a half to fine-tune, the pandemic has meant a lot less time was available in general for the collection to come together. “It usually takes about 12 months to prepare for the collections but time constraints and part-time working due to lockdowns meant we did it in seven to eight months which is different from the history,” reveals Mauro. “But I do believe that it’s an opportunity to really look at the future, the brighter side – something to push for. But in reality, we [did] put in a lot of additional effort to be able to achieve this collection.”

And that extra effort shows; Magnifica is a collection that is an astonishing display of extravagance, but one that breathes a joy-filled freedom back into our lives – at a time we really want to embrace it with all our might.

From Harpers Bazaar Arabia July-August 2021 Issue