It could be argued that if it wasn’t for the snake, we all wouldn’t be here, for it was in the Garden of Eden when the snake stirred the first temptation of man, and we all know where the story leads from there.
From time immemorial, the snake has enthralled mankind. In ancient Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl or the “feathered serpent” was said to come down to earth and endowed mankind with knowledge of science, agriculture and the arts.
The ancient Egyptians, who revered the snake, acknowledged it as a symbol of divinity and sovereignty represented in the Uraeus, a symbol that adorned a pharaoh’s headdress in the form of a cobra’s head.
The ancient Greeks, meanwhile, saw the reptiles as a symbol of healing, fertility and transformation. The Greek figure Asclepius was known as the god of medicine and was often depicted holding a staff entwined with snakes, a symbol today known as the caduceus, which you can still spot at many modern medical institutions today.
But long before the ancient Greeks, the Sumerians were already carving the caduceus on clay tablets sometime around 4000BC, associating the symbol with the Sumerian god Ningishzida and his staff of two intertwined snakes.
So what do we modern-day humans do? Well, we know a good design when we spot one. Snake imagery is still prevalent in the world today, particularly in the realm of fashion and jewellery and no design is quite as embedded into our psyche as the Bvlgari Serpenti.
Born out of a demand for modernity in the post-WWII era, Giorgio and Constantino Voulgaris, the sons of Bvlgari’s founder Sotirious, designed the first-ever Serpenti jewellery watch in 1948. A timepiece so avant-garde that it was to become the jeweller’s most celebrated design for over seven decades.
With its sinuous gold coils that beautifully wrap around the wrist and a dial discreetly laid out on the snake’s geometric head, everything about the timepiece showcased an avant-garde attitude that was way ahead of its time.
While undoubtedly a glamorous piece of craftsmanship, the inspiration for the watch’s unique coiling design was quite far from the exotic image it upheld. The Tubogas technique was inspired by a rather mundane piece of material – a piece of looped gas pipe used to transport pressurised gas.
As a patented industrial manufacturing technique invented sometime in the late 19th century, the Tubogas proved to be a clever method in the creation of the Serpenti. By coiling a springy metal around a core, which is later removed, resulting in a hollow metal structure that can be manipulated into various shapes.
It is this fluid nature that made the Serpenti to be such a versatile design that Bvlgari rolled out new interpretations over time. Each decade saw a new interpretation, embodying the spirit of its time.
In the 1950s, the Maison crafted the Serpenti with refined and more realistic features, while the 1960s proved to be a decade of experimentation. Bedecked in colourful gemstones and enamels, this was to be the era when the Serpenti ventured out of the Roman fashion set and into the world of Hollywood.
This popularity is attributed to Elizabeth Taylor who donned the Secret Serpenti watch while promoting the film Cleopatra. Famously, Diana Vreeland, who was then the editor-in-chief of Vogue, was also credited with bringing the Serpenti to its legendary status today.
Legend has it, the editor, who was fond of wearing Bvlgari’s Serpenti snake belt in white and pink enamel as a necklace, had written a memo to her staff, “Don’t forget the serpent! It should be on every finger and all wrists…the serpent is the motif of the hours in jewellery.”
Elizabeth Taylor wears the Secret Serpenti watch while on tour for Cleopatra. (Image credit: Bvlagri)
But for the fashion set, the image of the Serpenti has always been that of a luxurious jewellery watch. But it goes without question that it’s just as much of an engineering feat. Back in the day, major manufacturers such as Jaeger LeCoultre, Piaget, and Vacheron Constantin supplied the manual micro-movements for the Serpenti Secret watch.
The Maison has not only been reinterpreting Serpenti’s outer design but also its inner technical evolution over the years. Bulgari’s recent watch releases have cemented the jeweller’s excellence in engineering some of the world’s thinnest movements such as the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra.
This technological prowess translates to the Serpenti Misteriosi Dragone which comes with an in-house movement dubbed the “Piccollissimo” micro calibre, a diminutive movement regarded as one of the smallest mechanical movements today at a staggering 12.30mm in diameter and 2.50mm thick.
The Serpenti Misteriosi Dragone.
The spellbinding piece is a stunning union of jewellery craftsmanship and engineering with its gold coil adorned with brilliant-cut diamonds and mesmerising emerald stones set as the serpent’s eyes.
To mark this perpetual journey of transformation, Bvlagri launches Serpenti Infinito to coincide with the Year of the Snake in 2025. This cultural exchange draws parallels between the snake’s potent symbolism and within the Chinese tradition. An infinity symbol represents this campaign that is born out of the Serpenti’s spirit of reinvention as it continues to take on new guises through its evolution of materials, colours and textures.
As a creature regarded as the subtlest of all the beasts in the animal kingdom, isn’t it extraordinary how the snake manages to stir the strongest of emotions since the dawn of time itself?
