Bulgari Serpenti Viper Bracelet (gold + diamonds)

A snake born after the war

Bulgari's serpent first appeared in 1948 as a gold bracelet-watch: a square dial for a head and a body that wrapped around the wrist. It was made in the Tubogas technique, tight flexible coils of gold that gave the band its spring. Bulgari's brand and archive curator, Lucia Boscaini, has said the piece came out of a search for something functional and modern rather than showy, in a postwar Rome eager to look to the future.

Through the 1950s the design became more literal, with realistic snake heads set with diamonds, rubies, sapphires or emeralds for eyes, and the watch dial hidden in the mouth, the so-called secret watch. By the 1960s the bodies were built from scales of sheet gold, some enameled in bright colors and set with lapis lazuli, coral, jade, onyx or turquoise. Each enameled scale was colored and fired separately, then assembled with tiny screws.

The serpent was a natural emblem for a Roman house. In Greek and Roman myth snakes stood for rebirth, healing, protection and eternity, and Bulgari's own description of the Viper calls it an 'icon of endless metamorphosis.'

Cleopatra's bracelet

The Serpenti became famous in 1962, when Elizabeth Taylor wore one of Bulgari's snake bracelets in a publicity shot while filming Cleopatra in Rome. That bracelet had overlapping gold scales, gemstone eyes and diamonds along its body, and its flexibility came from a white gold spring hidden inside. The very public romance between Taylor and her co-star Richard Burton kept the cameras on her, and Bulgari's profile rose well beyond Rome.

Taylor kept buying serpent pieces for the rest of her life. When Bulgari celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2009 with an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, the bracelet from the 1962 photographs was on display, and in 2010 the house gave Taylor a watch from its new Serpenti line.

In the 1970s the enameled snakes starred in a famous series of Bulgari advertisements, wrapped around a large letter B. Andy Warhol, who called Bulgari 'the most important museum of contemporary art' and visited whenever he was in Rome, acquired a triple-coil Tubogas snake watch-bracelet.

A more dangerous snake

The Viper is the modern member of the family. When Bulgari announced it, chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin explained the name this way: it 'telegraphs a more dangerous and aggressive snake, energy, dynamism and speed.' He tied it back to the city: 'Snakes are linked to the history of Rome — you think of Cleopatra, strength, power and seduction.'

The collection was presented as genderless, part of a push toward a younger customer that also produced a unisex B.zero1 ring called Rock earlier that year. It was described as having more geometric and stylized lines than earlier Serpenti, in white, yellow and pink gold, some with diamond pavé, and customers could have pieces engraved. Prices at launch ran from more than 7,000 euros to 20,000 euros.

The announcement came in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Babin said many mines were closed or working slowly but Bulgari had not had trouble getting diamonds; gold was the bigger problem, up 27 percent to $1,900 an ounce since November 2019, which he said would force price increases. The pieces are made in Italy; Bulgari's jewelry plant in Valenza, opened in 2017, was described as the largest of its kind in Europe.

How to recognize it

The Viper bracelet is a single coil of small, sharply cut gold scales, hinged together by hand, that opens and wraps around the wrist rather than closing with a clasp. On reference BR860040 the scales are 18-karat yellow gold, and the head and tail are set with demi pavé diamonds. Retailers describe the diamond weight on the one-coil diamond version as 0.47 carat total.

The same model is made in other golds: a department store lists an 18-karat white gold version with 0.47 total carat weight of diamonds on the head and tail, made in Italy. Plain gold Vipers without diamonds sit lower on Bulgari's U.S. price list, and two-coil and wider versions exist as well.

It is easy to confuse the Viper with the Serpenti Tubogas, which uses the original coiled-tube band of 1948. The Viper's band is made of scales, not a coil, and its head is a stylized point rather than a sculpted snake's head.

The everyday Serpenti

Where vintage enameled Serpenti were made in very small numbers, fewer than one hundred by one account, the Viper is a current production line sold in Bulgari boutiques and through authorized retailers. Its role is to put the house's best-known symbol on a wrist every day, stacked with other bracelets, which Bulgari itself encourages in describing the piece as 'easy to mix and match.'

The serpent continues to spread across the house. Bulgari reimagined it in 2010 with the Serpenti Tubogas line, put a snake-head closure on the Serpenti Forever handbag in 2011 and launched the Serpenti Seduttori jewelry collection in 2016. The Viper is the most graphic of these, and the one built to be worn by anyone.

The numbers

Reference

BR860040

Metal

18-karat yellow gold

Diamonds

Demi pavé on head and tail, 0.47 ct total per retailer listings

Form

One-coil wrap bracelet of hand-hinged scales, no clasp

Origin

Made in Italy

Production

Current serial production; no edition limit

Timeline

1. 1884

   Sotirio Bulgari founds the house in Rome.

2. 1948

   The first Serpenti, a gold Tubogas bracelet-watch with a square dial, is made.

3. 1962

   Elizabeth Taylor wears a Bulgari snake bracelet in a publicity shot while filming Cleopatra in Rome.

4. 2009

   Bulgari marks 125 years with an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris that includes Taylor's bracelet.

5. 2010

   Bulgari combines the Tubogas body and the serpent head in the Serpenti Tubogas collection.

6. 2011

   The first Serpenti handbag launches.

7. 2016

   Bulgari launches the Serpenti Seduttori fine jewelry collection.

8. 2017

   Bulgari's jewelry manufacturing plant opens in Valenza, Italy.

9. Dec 2020

   The Serpenti Viper collection is due in stores, announced as genderless, with launch prices from more than 7,000 to 20,000 euros.

10. Oct 2026

    Reference BR860040 is listed at $13,700 on Bulgari's U.S. site.

The world in 1948

• 1948

  The 1948 Summer Olympics open in London, the first Games since World War II.

• 1948

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

• 1962

  Cleopatra is filmed in Rome, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

• Jan 31, 2020

  The United Kingdom formally leaves the European Union.

• Mar 11, 2020

  The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic; Italy has already become the first country to impose a nationwide quarantine.

• 2020

  Global jewelry sales fall 15 percent to 18 billion euros, by one industry estimate.

• 2020

  Gold rises 27 percent to about $1,900 an ounce from November 2019, by Bulgari's account.

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 Serpenti Viper Bracelet (gold + diamonds) is number 64 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 (67 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Bulgari's first snake, in 1948, was a watch, not a bracelet.
• Elizabeth Taylor's 1962 Serpenti stayed flexible thanks to a white gold spring inside it.
• Some 1960s Serpenti had the snake's species name engraved on the tail.
• Bulgari's chief executive said the Viper name was meant to suggest a more dangerous, aggressive snake.
• The Viper was launched as a genderless collection.
• Andy Warhol owned a triple-coil Bulgari Tubogas snake watch-bracelet.