Dubai Watch Week 2025: Bulgari Honors The Emirati Culture With Its Mattar Bin Lahej x Octo Finissimo
3 min read
Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo collection, renowned for its technical record-breaking feats, particularly in ultra-thin watchmaking exploits, takes on fresh artistic dimensions with its latest collaboration. This time the brand partners with celebrated Emirati artist Mattar Bin Lahej for a limited-edition timepiece that celebrates Dubai’s forward-looking spirit.
For the Dubai Watch Week 2025, Bulgari honors the Emirati traditions by introducing the Octo Finissimo watch laser-engraved with Arabic calligraphy as a limited-edition timepiece.
Arabic Calligraphy As Modern Horological Art
At the heart of this release is a 40mm x 5mm sandblasted titanium case and bracelet, transformed into a canvas for Arabic artistry. Laser-engraved on the dial, case, and bracelet in calligraphy, is the popular saying of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, “The future will be for those who can imagine, design, and implement it. The future does not wait, but it can be designed and built today”. These words by the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, rendered in Mattar Bin Lahej’s fluid, sweeping style, underscore the notion that timepieces can also be wearable cultural statements.
Mattar Bin Lahej, acclaimed for his large-scale installations across Dubai - including the Museum of the Future, brings a uniquely local identity by embedding the Emirati ethos of innovation within every line. For Bulgari, this collaboration marks a deepened engagement with regional culture, as previous art-focused Octo Finissimo editions (such as the Tattoo series) have never gone so far in letting art truly take center stage.
Purity And Technical Excellence
On the dial of this collaborative artwork, only the minimalistic hands coexist with the engraved message on the dial, stripping away all distractions for a truly artistic impact. This edition is powered by the BVL 138 automatic microrotor movement, an ultra-thin caliber measuring just 2.23mm, delivering a 60-hour power reserve and hand-finished decoration such as Côtes de Genève and anglage. When launched in 2017, this was the thinnest automatic movement in the world, a testament to Bulgari’s relentless focus on technical innovation.
Through its transparent caseback, the watch proudly bears the artist’s own signature for a subtle but meaningful nod to the creative partnership.
A True Fusion Of Cultures
The Mattar Bin Lahej x Octo Finissimo is more than an exquisite wristwatch, it’s proof that art, culture, and high horology can coalesce into something boldly original. In immortalizing the vision of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Arabic script, Bulgari and Mattar Bin Lahej have crafted a contemporary icon, one that honors the imagination, energy, and ambition of Dubai today.
Produced as a limited-edition of just 70 pieces, this release by Bulgari at Dubai Watch Week 2025 is guaranteed to become both a collector’s trophy and an emblem of cross-cultural creativity.
