Hands-OnBulgari's Bronzo Takes The 90s Classic 'Aluminum' And Gives It Some Heft

I last wrote about this design in 2023, and the "creative" comments about the brand's use of the Bulgari name on the bezel were plentiful. It's certainly a love-it-or-hate-it design that is firmly rooted in the late 90s style from whence the original came. The brand called it the first luxury watch made of aluminum when it was launched in 1998, and the rubber bezel, featuring the branding, carried over. But if you dig deeper, there's more to love.

The wearing experience of a Bulgari Aluminum is interesting. I still find ultra-light watches somewhat odd and occasionally disconcerting. A sense of heft not only imparts a feeling of value, but it also assures you that there's something heavy protecting the mechanical movement on your wrist. There's no lack of heft with the new Bulgari Bronzos, which (as the name implies) feature a bronze case capped by a rubber bezel, launched in a chronograph and GMT version.

Both watches feature bronze-toned hands (including on the counters for the chronograph) and printed dials with luminous material on the hands and dial indices. The black dials mimic the black rubber bezel. The chronograph features a tachymeter at the edge of the bezel with subdivided counters for the minutes, a running seconds subdial at 3 o'clock, a 30-minute counter at 9 o'clock, and a 12-hour counter at 6 o'clock. The chronograph's bronze case measures 41mm in diameter and is 12.35mm thick, with a water resistance of 100 meters.

Of course, the inclusion of a date window (let alone one on a chronograph) will be a point of contention, but the busyness of the dial itself actually helps mask the 4:30 date window, especially with the color-matched display. The chronograph also features a black DLC-coated titanium crown, pushers, and caseback, which completes this two-tone style look that has a lot of punchiness. What will be interesting to see is how the bronze case ages over time, picking up patina (which often trends toward the off-green tones) and adding a third dimension of color to the watch.

Inside the case is the Bulgari Caliber B381, an automatic caliber based on a Sellita SW300 movement with a Dubois-Depraz chronograph module, which operates at 4Hz with a 42-hour power reserve. As these are on the more affordable end of Bulgari's offerings, I frankly think they could have gone even more affordable with a Sellita 510 and saved some more money, but I would guess that a lot of the cost here is still in the case manufacturing and not movement.

The Bronzo GMT, meanwhile, has a Sellita SW330-1-based automatic movement called the B192, which gets a bit more power reserve at 50 hours. This means that the movement has an independently-adjustable GMT hand and not a "flyer" style hour hand, which is a consideration for some like myself who have a specific preference toward the local-jumping take on a GMT. The 24-hour indication is located on a slightly more polished rehaut at the edge of the dial, while the rubber bezel remains the same as the rest of the models in the collection. The GMT also has 100m of water resistance alongside case measurements of 40mm by 9.7mm.

The more time I spend with watches like the Aluminum and the Bronzo, the more I appreciate their quirkiness. Those rubberized bezels speak a bit to my 90s nostalgia in the same way a bright neon nylon wallet with Velcro makes me think about saving my tickets for buying a cool prize at Chuck E. Cheese. Actually, the mention of Velcro brings me to one of the best parts: the rubber strap. There's something particularly unique about how Bulgari created these hinged, tough, rigid, and yet comfortable straps on these models (be they aluminum or bronze).

The way the bracelet hugs the wrist and drops off from the unusual central lug design means that I think it will fit a variety of wrist sizes quite well. The balance is certainly more top-heavy than with the Aluminum, but sometimes the weight is a comfort in the back of your mind. Actually, the closest wearing experience I can recall is the Rolex Daytona on an Oysterflex bracelet. While the Oysterflex bracelet has a few more things going for it (like the fins on the inside of the strap that keep it from sticking to your wrist), it achieves a similar balance on the wrist.

For $550 more than the recently released Bulgari Aluminum collaboration with Fender, the $4,900 Bulgari Bronzo GMT feels like a more holistic design package that has a bit more balance to the aesthetic punch you get, this time through a bronze case and black accents instead of a whole lot of brown.  Meanwhile, the Bvlgari Bronzo Chronograph would be my personal pick of the two, but it retails for $6,150. The prices do seem a bit high, however, especially considering that the secondary market prices of Bulgari Aluminums often provide a discount. 

The upside of being an early adopter is that you'll have one of two great-looking, comfortable-wearing watches that you won't see on many wrists. In fact, I recently saw a "Match Point" Aluminum on the wrist of someone sitting outside for lunch at J.G. Melon and stopped in my tracks (and for once it wasn't because I was craving a burger). That's the kind of surprise you don't get out of a lot of watches these days.

For more information, visit Bulgari's website.