Bulgari Tubogas Bracelet (18k yellow gold)

From gas pipes to gold

Tubogas is an industrial idea turned into jewelry. The technique was developed in the 19th century, and its name comes from the gas pipe: one account traces it to the woven metal coverings that protected gas lines, another to the French tube de gaz. Either way, the look is the same, a smooth, ribbed, flexible tube.

The method is simple to describe and hard to do. Long, narrow strips of gold are wound around a central core of wood or copper so that their edges interlock, with no soldering of any kind. The core is then pulled out or dissolved in acid, leaving a hollow, seamless, flexible coil. Alternating strips of yellow, rose and white gold give the coil stripes of color.

Bulgari did not invent the technique. The French jeweler Henri Vever credited Auguste Lion with experiments in the late 19th century, though scholars have questioned that attribution. What Bulgari did was make Tubogas its own.

Bulgari in the 1940s

Bulgari was founded in Rome in 1884 by Sotirios Voulgaris, a Greek silversmith from Epirus. Its flagship on Via Condotti opened in 1905, and in 1934 the classical spelling BVLGARI, with a V for the U, went over the door.

Bulgari's turn to Tubogas came in the 1940s, a decade of scarcity. Platinum was requisitioned for the war and gemstones could not move freely across borders, so jewelers worked in yellow and rose gold, often melting down clients' family pieces. Bold gold coils that needed no stones suited the moment. Bulgari's first Tubogas pieces were heavy gold coils, some framing watch dials.

"It is by the technique and by the design that you understand the beauty of Tubogas," says Gislain Aucremanne, who directs Bulgari's archive collection.

The snake that needed a spring

In the late 1940s Bulgari introduced the Serpenti, a bracelet-watch shaped like a snake. Its gold body could wind convincingly around the wrist only because of Tubogas: the coiled band gave the serpent both its flexibility and its grip. Early models paired flexible yellow gold bodies with diamond-set heads and tails; in the 1960s the snakes took on colored enamel and gem-set scales.

The Serpenti became famous in 1962, when Elizabeth Taylor wore Bulgari snake watches while filming Cleopatra in Rome. By then the city was known as Hollywood on the Tiber, and Taylor, Anna Magnani and Ingrid Bergman were among Bulgari's clients.

The world around the first Serpenti was rebuilding. In 1948, the year a modern Bulgari history dates the first Serpenti to, the Marshall Plan was signed, the Berlin Airlift began, and London hosted the first Olympic Games since 1936.

Steel, coins and a collection of its own

Tubogas kept evolving. In the 1960s and 1970s Bulgari combined yellow, rose and white gold in one coil, mounted ancient coins on Tubogas, and in the 1970s paired gray steel with yellow gold, a combination more labor-intensive than solid gold. The coil wrapped the wrist on Serpenti watches with one, two or more spirals and on the Bvlgari Bvlgari watch.

In 1999 the same technique became the backbone of the B.zero1 ring, inspired by the Colosseum.

Today Bulgari sells Tubogas as a collection of its own, describing it as "the jewelry technique cherished by the Roman Maison since the 1940s," elevated into an iconic line. The plain yellow gold bracelet, reference 361281, is its simplest expression.

Identifying reference 361281

The FLOAT 100 entry is reference 361281, an 18k yellow gold Tubogas bracelet with no stones. On its U.S. site, Bulgari names it the Bvlgari Tubogas Bracelet, lists it in size 15, and prices it at $9,850 excluding taxes. A U.S. jeweler sells the same manufacturer number as the "18K Yellow Gold Serpenti Tubogas Bracelet - Size S," also at $9,850. The two names describe the same piece: Serpenti is the snake line the coil grew up in, and Tubogas is the line Bulgari sells it under now.

Bulgari's own listing does not state how many coils the bracelet makes around the wrist; buyers comparing pieces should check that detail, along with the reference number and size, against the maker's paperwork. Related Tubogas bracelets carry other references, such as 361493 at $13,600 and 361497 and 361500 at $9,850, as listed in October 2026.

A genuine Tubogas coil is built from interlocking strips with no solder joints, and it is hollow and flexible rather than rigid.

Bulgari's most recognizable form

Bulgari celebrated 70 years of Tubogas in 2018, counting from its first pieces in the 1940s. Over those decades the coil has carried watches, coins, gemstones and steel, and it underpins two of the house's best-known lines, Serpenti and B.zero1.

The plain gold bracelet is Tubogas with nothing added, which is why it reads as Bulgari from across a room.

The numbers

Reference

361281

Metal

18k yellow gold

Carat weight

None; no gemstones on this model

Construction

Tubogas coil: interlocking gold strips, no soldering, hollow core

Size

15 (maker's listing); S (dealer listing)

Maker

Bulgari, Rome; technique used by the house since the 1940s

Timeline

1. 1884

   Sotirios Voulgaris founds Bulgari in Rome.

2. 1905

   The Via Condotti flagship opens.

3. 1934

   The BVLGARI name, with a classical V, goes over the Via Condotti door.

4. 1948

   Bulgari's first Serpenti bracelet-watch, built on a Tubogas coil (late 1940s).

5. 1962

   Elizabeth Taylor wears Bulgari Serpenti watches while filming Cleopatra in Rome.

6. 1970

   In the 1970s Bulgari pairs steel with yellow gold in Tubogas.

7. 1999

   Tubogas becomes the backbone of the B.zero1 ring.

8. 2011

   LVMH acquires Bulgari for about €4.3 billion ($6.0 billion).

9. 2018

   Bulgari marks 70 years of Tubogas.

10. Oct 2026

    Reference 361281 lists at $9,850 from the maker.

The world in 1948

• Jan 30, 1948

  Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi.

• Apr 3, 1948

  President Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.

• May 14, 1948

  Israel declares independence; David Ben-Gurion becomes prime minister.

• Jun 26, 1948

  The Berlin Airlift begins after the Soviet blockade of West Berlin.

• Jul 5, 1948

  Britain's National Health Service begins operating.

• Jul 29, 1948

  The London Olympics open, the first Summer Games since 1936.

• Nov 1948

  Harry Truman wins the U.S. presidential election despite predictions of defeat.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Bulgari Tubogas Bracelet (18k yellow gold) is number 67 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (66 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Tubogas means "gas pipe"; the coil was named for industrial piping.
• A Tubogas coil is made without any soldering; the core it is wound on is pulled out or dissolved in acid.
• Bulgari's turn to gold coils came partly because platinum was requisitioned during World War II.
• Without Tubogas, Bulgari's Serpenti snake watches could not wrap around the wrist.
• Elizabeth Taylor wore Bulgari snake watches on the set of Cleopatra in 1962.
• Bulgari celebrated 70 years of Tubogas in 2018.