Bulgari has had my eye for a while because the company has been making some bold moves. This year it “ate” sub-brands Daniel Roth and Gerald Genta, and last year it started released much more “powerful” designs. That doesn’t mean you have to love the designs, but they are certainly strong in the “brand DNA” department. A lot of their new watches for 2010 were actually re-branded, face-lifted Daniel Roth and Gerald Genta watches. Though a few new models did come out and this Bulgari Sotirio Bulgari watch for 2010. Sotirio was the founder of the brand, and in the last couple of years the brand has been releasing watches with his name.

Here is a Sotirio Bulgari watch from last year that I talked about. The new watch collection for 2010 changes things up a bit with a more straight forward dial and design. The most interesting elements are in the case design as well as the available metal and gold bracelet.

The case is 43mm wide in steel with some gold or in all 18k gold. Sapphire crystal over the dial and caseback. Inside the watch is an in-house made Bulgari Caliber 168 automatic movement. The movement has a unique Bulgari shaped automatic rotor, and some perlage decoration, but otherwise nothing too special other than the fact that it is in-house made. In addition to the time, it has a date complication that displayed the date around the periphery of the watch. I personally don’t like reading the date this way as I find it distracting when attempting to read the time. The prior Sotirio Bulgari watch did have the date on a disc though.

For me, the style of the watch is held back, but in a good way. Bulgari was making some wild looking watches for a while that I didn’t see too many people buying. While this watch has a lot of Bulgari DNA and a quirky style, it is relatively held back. Part of the reason for this is likely due to Bulgari’s cost cutting needs as the brand hasn’t been fiscally outstanding lately. Look for the new Sotirio Bulgari watches in Bulgari stores soon.