Bvlgari Tubogas: When Industrial Ingenuity Becomes Roman Gold

Rome, in the years after the Second World War: the Eternal City is stirring again. Cafés glow into the evening, the grand palazzi reclaim their rhythm and a new generation is beginning to dream beyond austerity. 

Inside the atelier of the Roman jeweller Bvlgari, another kind of transformation is taking place. The old rules of fine jewellery are being quietly challenged. The inspiration is unexpectedly industrial: the flexible, corrugated tubes used to protect and transport pressurised gas. 

What might have belonged to an engineer’s workshop is about to become something infinitely more seductive — gold, transformed into movement.

The ingenious Tubogas technique wraps long strips of metal around a core, interlocking them with extraordinary precision and without soldering. The result is supple, almost serpentine, capable of following the body with a fluidity that conventional rigid jewellery could rarely achieve. 

Bvlgari officially introduced the Serpenti bracelet-watch in 1948, marrying a Tubogas spiral bracelet with a geometric watch dial — an audacious collision of jewellery, mechanics and sculpture that would become one of the Maison’s defining signatures. 

It is difficult to imagine a more characteristically Bvlgari idea: take something utilitarian and industrial, strip it of its mundane associations, wrap it in precious metal and give it the sensuality of a Roman relic.

The serpent, naturally, evolved. Its head became increasingly realistic; enamel, coloured stones and diamonds animated its scales and eyes; secret watch mechanisms transformed the creature into an object of mystery. 

During the Dolce Vita years, the Serpenti became inseparable from the glamour surrounding Bvlgari, with Elizabeth Taylor among the legendary devotees whose relationship with the Roman Maison helped propel its jewels into popular imagination. 

Taylor herself recalled visiting Bvlgari during the filming of Cleopatra in Rome. 

Now, decades later, Bvlgari returns to that extraordinary vocabulary with five new Tubogas creations — and, importantly, does not attempt to reinvent the icon by abandoning what made it extraordinary in the first place.

The most compelling proposition is an asymmetric parure comprising necklace, bracelet and earrings in yellow gold and diamonds, inspired by a Serpenti Tubogas bracelet-watch dating to around 1974. 

Its dramatic new signature is found in the boldly flared geometric ends: sculptural volumes that appear almost architectural against the body, their brilliant-cut pavé diamonds catching the light with characteristic Bvlgari exuberance.

Yet the real fascination lies beneath the glamour. To create the progressively tapered Tubogas mesh, Bvlgari developed a bespoke graduated framework — an exceptionally complex construction drawn from the technical vocabulary of its High Jewellery universe. This is not merely a new silhouette. It is a technical advancement of the craft itself, bringing an elaborate construction into the core Tubogas collection for the first time. 

The single-coil bracelet retains its flexible, open construction, while the necklace, requiring more than 17 hours of meticulous craftsmanship, is finished with a sliding clasp for adjustable length.

Then comes another deliciously modern gesture: three-gold Tubogas. Yellow, white and rose gold are brought together within the iconic flat mesh, each strand meticulously hand-pulled to achieve a seamless interplay of tones. Minimalist yet unmistakably Bvlgari, it possesses that rare quality of feeling simultaneously contemporary and timeless — and, rather wonderfully, entirely indifferent to gender.

Completing the chapter are softly rounded yellow-gold half-hoop earrings, introducing a gentler curved expression to the family.

This is precisely why Tubogas remains so fascinating. Bvlgari does not treat heritage as a museum piece. Founded by Greek silversmith Sotirio Bulgari in Rome in 1884, beginning with a modest shop on Via Sistina, the Maison has spent more than a century converting Roman exuberance, craftsmanship and fearless experimentation into a global language of luxury. 

From jewellery and watches to fragrances, accessories and its increasingly seductive hospitality universe, Bvlgari understands that luxury is ultimately an atmosphere — a way of inhabiting the world.

Tubogas captures that philosophy magnificently. It is industrial yet sensual, technical yet instinctive, disciplined yet gloriously extravagant. And in these newest creations, Bvlgari proves something every true jewellery connoisseur already suspects: the most enduring icons do not survive by standing still. They survive by learning how to seduce the future.

The new Bvlgari Tubogas creations arrive in boutiques worldwide from September 2026.

*Photos courtesy of Bvlgari.