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singerSpotted November 2022

Singer Nick Jonas spotted wearing a Bulgari

singer Nick Jonas spotted wearing a Bulgari
Who & what: Bulgari Octo L'Originale Full Baguette Diamond Set – Nick Jonas at 2020 Golden Globes

At the 77th Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton on January 5, 2020, singer and actor Nick Jonas arrived on the red carpet wearing what may be the most diamond-saturated wristwatch spotted at a Hollywood awards ceremony in recent memory: a factory-set Bulgari Octo L'Originale entirely paved with baguette-cut diamonds, 1,172 stones weighing a combined 50.25 carats.

The Octo L'Originale is the watch that repositioned Bulgari as a serious haute horlogerie contender. Introduced in 2012 and designed by Gerald Genta alumnus Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, its octagonal bezel integrated with a round case produces 12 superimposed geometric layers — a detail visible even through the diamond paving on Jonas's example. The base movement is Bulgari's in-house BVL 193, a self-winding calibre with a 42-hour power reserve running at 28,800 vph, housed in a 41mm white gold case. In this jewellery configuration, the dial, bezel, lugs, and every bracelet link are set with precision-cut baguettes in a technique that demands individual hand-fitting of each stone to maintain the illusion of a continuous icy surface.

Among collectors and the trade, full baguette Octo pieces occupy a specific niche: they are not catalogued references in the conventional sense but rather made-to-order or limited high-jewellery commissions handled through Bulgari's jewellery ateliers in Rome and Valenza. The absence of a single published reference number reflects this; these watches are priced and transacted more like bespoke jewellery pieces than production watches. The visual clues from the image — rectangular baguette-set bracelet links with a castellated profile, baguette bezel, and a spiralling baguette dial with applied Arabic numerals at 12 and 6 — are consistent with Bulgari's documented high-jewellery Octo executions shown at Baselworld 2018–2019.

Jonas, who married actress Priyanka Chopra in December 2018, has developed a consistent appetite for statement jewellery watches. His choice of the diamond Octo over more predictable red-carpet options — a Patek or AP Royal Oak Offshore — signals genuine engagement with the category rather than a stylist's safe pick.

At a UK list price of £710,000 (approximately $920,000 at 2020 exchange rates), this piece sits beyond conventional grey-market pricing. Secondary transactions for comparable Bulgari high-jewellery Octo configurations, when they appear at auction, have tracked closely to or slightly above original retail, reflecting the bespoke nature and the cost of the stone inventory alone.

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