Watch Paparazzi

Actor Catherine Deneuve spotted wearing Bulgari

Catherine Deneuve, one of French cinema's most enduring and stylistically authoritative figures, was photographed holding a microphone at what appears to be a press or cultural event, her left wrist carrying a quietly spectacular piece of Italian goldsmithing: a Bulgari Serpenti Tubogas in 18K yellow gold with a black dial. The watch sits low and flat against the wrist in its characteristic serpentine wrap, instantly recognisable to any collector.

The Tubogas construction — named after the industrial gas-pipe tubing it visually references — dates to Bulgari's mid-century jewellery experimentation. The technique involves interweaving flat gold strips into a flexible, self-supporting coil that requires no mechanical clasp, creating a bracelet and case that flow as a single organic unit. The black lacquered dial is framed by the brand's signature round-cornered shield case bearing the full 'BVLGARI BVLGARI' engraved bezel, a motif introduced in the 1970s by designer Gianni Bulgari and since become the house's most iconic typographic statement.

The reference visible here is consistent with the medium Tubogas model in 18K yellow gold, featuring a quartz movement — appropriate for a piece conceived primarily as a wrist sculpture. The absence of a crown is functional as well as aesthetic: time is set by gently rotating the case head itself. It is a watch that asks you to understand it before you can use it.

For collectors, vintage Tubogas pieces in solid 18K yellow gold occupy a specific and increasingly contested niche: they are simultaneously high jewellery, design objects, and horological curiosities. Demand from fashion-world collectors and those drawn to Italian mid-century design has pushed values steadily upward. Clean examples with original bracelets command serious premiums.

Deneuve's affinity for this piece is entirely coherent. She has long favoured understated European luxury over conspicuous branding, and the Tubogas — bold in construction yet quiet in display — reflects exactly that sensibility. Against the leopard print she wore at the event, the all-gold wrap reads as armour, not ornament.