It’s rare to see Italian design, Swiss horology, and Japanese craftsmanship converge in one object. Rarer still when it takes the form of a special-edition watch produced in extremely limited numbers (just 80 pieces per variation, to be exact). That is precisely what we’re getting with the new Bulgari Lucea Notte di Luce, a timepiece born of the maison’s collaboration with the Kyoto-based lacquer master Yasuhiro Asai. The partnership traces back to Bulgari’s Executive Director of Product Creation, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, who met Asai in Japan and found a shared fascination with luminosity—the core idea behind Lucea (from lux, or “light”) and its sublimated feminine radiance. Asai, celebrated for preserving the 1,300-year-old maki-e tradition, translates that theme into a dial that feels as ancient as it is contemporary. Lucea Notte di Luce's dial is the true revelation. Entirely handcrafted in Asai’s Kyoto atelier, it unites two ancestral Japanese techniques. First, the deep black..
