Bulgari just unveiled a watch that hides itself behind money. Not metaphorical money, but an actual ancient Roman silver coin, minted somewhere between 198 and 297 AD, graced by Emperor Caracalla.
You flip the coin up, and there’s a dial underneath. Flip it down, and the watch disappears into history. The whole thing is called the Bulgari Maglia Milanese Monete Secret Watch, and it costs €157,000.
That price already tells you most of what you need to know, but the mechanics are more interesting.
Bulgari has been doing this coin thing since the 1960s. Their Monete line is one of those luxury ideas that is both extremely simple and extremely high-concept: take something that is already old, rare, and valuable, and then attach more value to it by embedding it in something else that is also expensive.
You’re not just wearing a watch. You are wearing a watch that is hiding behind two thousand years of imperial authority. It’s a horological shell game, except the shell is an empire.
This new version was unveiled at the 2026 LVMH Watch Week in Milan, which is fitting, because the big novelty here is not the coin or even the secret-watch concept: it’s actually the bracelet!
With this dazzling release, Bulgari is debuting its first Milanese mesh bracelet, finished in rose gold and inspired by Renaissance-era goldsmithing techniques. It’s soft, fluid, and it manages to remind you very well that metal can even behave like fabric if you throw enough skill and money at it.
The case itself is rectangular, rose gold, with a slightly Art Deco posture, and as we’ve said before, the ancient coin sits right in the center, framed by a raised octagonal bezel set with diamonds. If you’ve seen an Octo Finissimo you probably know Bulgari likes octagons, right?
The coin is hinged, so it opens cleanly, like a locket that went to finishing school and under the coin you have a white mother-of-pearl dial with diamond indices and radiating sunburst lines that stretch from the bezel outward.
This is not a dial designed for reading the time in a hurry. This is a dial designed to reward you for having discovered it. The crown is octagonal, diamond-set, with a diamond cabochon on the tip.
Turn the watch over, and there’s a small porthole in the caseback. Through it, you can see Bulgari’s Piccolissimo BVP 100 calibre, which is the smallest round mechanical movement ever made. That’s not marketing language; that’s a measurable fact.
This thing is 13.5mm in diameter, 2.5mm thick, weighs under two grams, and contains 102 components. It runs at 21,600 vibrations per hour and has a 30-hour power reserve. In a practical concession to reality, this version can be wound by the crown, instead of requiring more acrobatic solutions.
There’s an economic idea buried in all of this. Bulgari is stacking value in layers. You start with an antique coin, which already has scarcity and history. You surround it with modern high jewelry, which has craftsmanship and material value. Then you add an in-house mechanical movement that exists largely to prove that Bulgari can do it. Finally, you hide the whole thing, which paradoxically makes it feel more precious.
Secret watches are luxury products that understand discretion as a form of status signaling. Anyone can show you the time. Fewer people can choose not to. The fact that this one requires you to lift an imperial coin to check the hour feels like a deliberate slowing of the transaction.
The Milanese mesh bracelet is also very important because it shifts Bulgari slightly closer to jewelry history and takes them a bit away from the conventional watchmaking methods. This is not trying to compete with sports watches or tool watches or even dress watches in the usual sense. It lives in a separate column. Jewelry first, mechanics second, symbolism everywhere.
At €157,000, this watch is not about value in the retail sense. It’s about coherence. Everything lines up: Rome, ancient coins, gold, miniature engineering, Milanese craft. Nothing feels accidental. That’s usually what people mean when they say a luxury object “makes sense,” even if the price never will.
More information is available at bulgari.com.
