Bulgari Tricolor Gold Lady's Tubogas Wristwatch

While the Bulgari Serpenti watch technically arrived first, it was a decorative bracelet from the Italian luxury jewelry house’s signature line that made a notable impact, thanks to a little help from Hollywood.

In 1962, the brand garnered international attention after its now-legendary serpent motif made its way into a photograph taken on the set of the star-studded historical epic Cleopatra. A Bulgari Serpenti bracelet — with its stunning snake head encrusted with diamonds — was wrapped around the wrist of the film’s star, Elizabeth Taylor, and the already desirable design was suddenly splashed across the pages of the tabloids, particularly as news of the actress’s romantic affair with Richard Burton made the rounds.

The serpent motif had by then been around for nearly 15 years, as Giorgio and Constantino Voulgaris — the sons of Bulgari founder Sotirios Voulgaris who’d taken over the business when their father passed away in 1932 — introduced a wristwatch with a case that resembled the head of a snake in the 1940s.

Elegant and artful, Bulgari's snake motif began as an homage to jewelry of the Roman and Hellenistic eras. And fittingly, serpents have long been symbolic of time — of eternity and renewal. Credit for decades of demand for jewelry adorned with reptiles can be attributed to Queen Victoria’s illustrious engagement ring, which took the form of a gold snake set with rubies, diamonds and an emerald (her birthstone). When Taylor’s Serpenti bracelet appeared, the attention had artisans at Bulgari exploring variations on the house’s popular theme, but the original snake, in 1948, was characterized by a golden yellow body, its tail and head encrusted with diamonds. 

The debut of the inaugural Serpenti watch coincided with Bulgari’s adoption of the Tubogas, or gas-pipe, goldsmithing technique, in which bands of gold are wrapped around a steel core without soldering, bringing the flexible braided bracelet to fruition. The design was quintessentially Bulgari: bold, colorful and eye-catching.

The snake was more abstract in appearance back then; over the years, the timepiece has assumed more of its namesake’s tangible physical features. Variations were introduced that had the face obscured by a hinged cover, which better emulated a snake’s head, and today, watches featuring the snake motif are available in a wide range of different styles, including bands dotted with hexagonal patterns inspired by snake scales and more. 

Today Serpenti is one of Bulgari’s most popular collections.

Greek silversmith Sotirios Voulgaris arrived in Rome in 1881 and set up his own shop there in 1884, calling it Bulgari, an Italianization of his last name (in the brand's logo, it's styled BVLGARI, using the classical Latin alphabet in a nod to ancient Roman culture). In 1905, he opened the company’s flagship boutique on Rome’s Via dei Condotti. Since then, Bulgari has looked to Rome as a source of reference for its fanciful and decidedly romantic designs for necklaces, bracelets, earrings and other accessories.

Although the iconic jewelry house found success with its silverwork and Art Deco designs, popular through the 1920s, Bulgari’s signature style — bold, often using yellow gold embellished with big colorful gemstones — began to emerge when Sotirios’s sons inherited the business, in 1932.

The brand truly hit its stride in the dolce vita era of the 1950s and ’60s, when the founder’s grandsons Paolo, Gianni and Nicola Bulgari decisively departed from demure traditional styles to develop the house’s exuberant multi-gem looks, attracting celebrity collectors like Elizabeth Taylor.

In the 1940s, Bulgari debuted perhaps its most famous design, the Serpenti bracelet watch. The piece’s snakelike coils were made possible by the tubogas jewelry technique, which links a flexible series of thin horizontal bands. Both the sleek, modern tubogas construction and the sinuous snake motif continue to be synonymous with the Bulgari brand. 

On 1stDibs, the collection of vintage Bulgari jewelry includes rings, pendant necklaces, watches and other accessories.