Worn & Wound
Bulgari and MB&F; Collaborate on a Completely New Take on the Serpenti
Whenever Bulgari introduces a new Serpenti, we see a familiar chorus of articles and reactions, often but not always from male members of the watch media, opining on the possibility of a “Serpenti for men”. We don’t like to gender watches around here and firmly believe that anyone can wear anything they’d like, but there’s also no point in denying that the Serpenti, for its entire history, has been aimed squarely at the ladies market, and that the watch itself, insofar as it resembles a piece of fine jewelry, possesses a certain inherent femininity. So the thought experiment of what a Serpenti that is truly gender neutral or even designed for a male wrist has persisted (even though it’s perfectly fine for some watches to just be what they are). Today, through a collaboration with MB&F;, we get an answer, kind of. The Bulgari x MB&F; Serpenti is an audacious reimagining of the core Serpenti idea, which is to interpret the body of a snake as a time telling device. MB&F;, of course, is the perfect collaborator for an endeavor like this. They’re no strangers to taking the essence of a living thing and turning it into a horological work of art. After frogs and bulldogs, the snake seems like a comfortable next step in populating the MB&F; zoo. The new creation, unlike a Serpenti Tubogas that is meant to wrap around a wrist, is worn like a traditional watch, at least in the sense that it consists of a case with a strap mounted to either end of it. That case though...
