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Discover the definitive book on Bulgari’s rich relationship with horology in Bulgari: Beyond Time. The book’s sweeping perspective celebrates more than a century of Roman-inspired savoir faire, exhaustively chronicling the manufacture’s Swiss-Italian watchmaking achievements through hundreds of original, captivating images and fascinating conversations with the company’s greatest specialists.
A truly holistic exploration of the art of timekeeping, this title explores Bulgari’s iconoclastic past, present and future, amplifying a multitude of voices to highlight the underlying motive—what Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin describes as “giving form to emotion, especially when this emotion confronts time”—behind the house’s diverse signature watch collections, specifically High-Jewelry, Serpenti, Bvlgari Bvlgari, Octo and Grandes Complications. Antoine Pin, the managing director of Bulgari watches, expounds on this conviction, saying “products are never just simply products—to each is attached emotions and meanings, from those who create it to those who experience it.” To experience a Bulgari watch is more than just determining the day’s hours, minutes and seconds; it is also a discovery of a microcosm of movement which, as the book’s title suggests, goes beyond time.
Brilliantly tying the narrative together—both historically and emotionally—are insightful essays by an iconic group of the globe’s most celebrated individuals whose, personal achievements dovetail with the soul of each watch collection: Christie’s famed jewelry auctioneer Rahul Kadakia discusses gems; performance-art superstar Marina Abramović speaks serpents; Italian actor, screenwriter, and director Alessandro Gassmann reflects on Rome; nine-time Olympic gold-medalist track-and-field athlete Carl Lewis explains the art of breaking records; and award-winning conductor Lorenzo Viotti charts the mental soundtrack to complex musical moments.
The narrative concludes in a stimulating conversation moderated by noted futurist Adam Steel with the likes of industrial designer Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Antoine Pin, and Babin. The exchange is an invitation to envision what watches will look like to future generations. A future described by Bulgari as forging new emotional connections between centuries of human endeavor and watchmaking tradition with the possibilities of tomorrow, whether here—or beyond Earth itself.
John Goldberger, whose real name is Auro Montanari, is regarded as one of the world’s greatest connoisseurs of vintage-watch collecting. He has authored, produced and created several highly acclaimed horological books, including 100 Superlative Rolex Watches, Patek Philippe Steel Watches, Longines Watches, Omega Watches and Time to Race: Watches and Speed—Stories of Men and Machines. Goldberger also serves on the Cultural Council of the Fondation Haute Horlogerie and on a board of advisers for Phillips auction house.
Since 1989, Fabienne Reybaud has been an esteemed editor specializing in the luxury field. She was head of the jewelry and watches department of the French daily newspaper Le Figaro for twenty-five years and is now an independent journalist, writing for leading national publications such as Paris Match and Numéro. Reybaud is the author of several books, including Watches: The Ultimate Guide (Assouline, 2006, 2010), Chanel: Jewelry and Watches (Assouline, 2020) Jewelry Guide: The Ultimate Compendium (Assouline, 2022), Tambour by Louis Vuitton (Thames & Hudson, 2022) and Rolex: The Impossible Collection (Assouline, 2018, 2023).
Robin Swithinbank is a writer, journalist, editor, broadcaster and consultant working across the luxury sector, with a particular focus on fine watches. He began his career in journalism in 2003 and went on to found and edit the upmarket men’s lifestyle title The Jackal. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, Financial Times, GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair and Robb Report, and serves as Harrods’ contributing watch editor. Today, he is one of the leading international voices covering the luxury industry, appearing on panels and podcasts and operating at the intersection of business, culture and lifestyle. In 2022, he was a jury member of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève. He lives in the UK with his wife and two children.
Adam Steel is strategic foresight editor at the Future Laboratory, one of the world’s most renowned future consultancies. For the past decade, Steel has been forecasting trends for world-leading organizations, with his reports informing global media campaigns, keynote presentations and brands’ internal strategies. Steel crafts narratives that connect the realities of today with the possibilities of tomorrow. His work has been covered in such publications as The Guardian, The Telegraph, The New Yorker, The Times and Harper’s Bazaar.