Bulgari and the Italian Navy jointly celebrate the Aluminium GMT Amerigo Vespucci Special Edition watch

Bulgari presents the Aluminium GMT Amerigo Vespucci Special Edition watch with an exclusive event aboard the undisputed Grand Lady of the Seas, docked for the occasion at the port of Naples.

Naples, 16 June 2022

Bulgari and the Italian Navy jointly celebrated the Bulgari Aluminium GMT Amerigo Vespucci Special Edition watch, a tribute to the Italian Navy’s Amerigo Vespucci training ship and its historical value. The project was facilitated by Difesa Servizi S.pA., an in-house Ministry of Defence company responsible for enhancing the brands of the Italian Armed Forces.

The 40 mm-diameter GMT Amerigo Vespucci special edition from the Aluminium collection enables dual-time readings thanks to the luminescent arrow hand making a full sweep of the dial in 24 hours. Two 12-hour zones in contrasting yellow and black colours serve to distinguish between day and night, while recalling the deep black and gold railings of the Amerigo Vespucci. Super-LumiNova*-coated hour-markers and white hands evoke memories of starry nights guiding sailors.

The titanium caseback bears the signature "Nave Scuola Amerigo Vespucci" along with the engraving of its motto “Not he who begins, but he who perseveres”. The articulated rubber strap — a characteristic feature of Bulgari Aluminium models — meets the twin requirements of robustness and flexibility, in keeping with the daring spirit of this watch intended for natural-born adventurers and explorers. Each of the 1,000 watches in the special series comes in a mahogany presentation box also engraved with the ship's motto.

To celebrate the unique nature of this project, Bulgari chose Naples, a city with which it enjoys longstanding and deeply rooted ties. Some may indeed not be aware that, prior to his 1884 arrival in Rome and the start of the Brand's successful history, its founder Sotirio Bulgari, who had emigrated from Epirus (Greece), opened his first shop in this wonderful city in 1881.

Doing the honours at this event were Admiral Aurelio De Carolis, Commander in Chief of the Italian Naval Fleet and Lelio Gavazza, Bulgari Executive Vice President Sales and Retail. Together with Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari Product Creation Executive Director and the Commanding Officer of the Amerigo Vespucci Massimiliano Siragusa, they welcomed their numerous international guests aboard the most beautiful vessel in the world, docked for the occasion at the Beverello Pier in the port of Naples.

Among the VIPs present were longstanding friends of the brand such as Lorenzo Zurzolo, Carlo Sestini and David Alexander Flinn.

Guests invited to the presentation of the new watch were able to visit the training ship, a symbol of seafaring excellence that is the envy of the entire world, as well as attend the emotional flag-lowering ceremony before ending the evening with an exclusive dinner on the deck of the oldest ship in the Italian Navy, enlivened by a performance given by Gianluigi Lembo (Anema e Core) and his band.