Serpent Bohème or Serpenti
Boucheron · Bulgari
Serpent Bohème
The serpent reduced to its head alone: a gold drop, first paved with diamonds, ringed by a border of gold beads.
Serpenti
A gold serpent that winds once or many times round wrist, finger or neck, its body a supple coil or a run of articulated scales.
Twenty years apart, Rome and Paris read the serpent in opposite ways. Bulgari's first Serpenti, in 1948, was a bracelet-watch whose body was a Tubogas coil; the snake winds whole around the wrist, later in bright 1960s enamel and now in the hexagonal scales of Serpenti Viper. Boucheron's Serpent Bohème, from 1968, keeps only the head, a beaded gold teardrop sized from XS to XXL, sometimes filled with malachite or mother-of-pearl. Bulgari wraps the body; Boucheron hangs a single drop.
| Fact | Serpent Bohème | Serpenti |
|---|---|---|
| Introduced | 1968 | 1948 |
| School | Place Vendôme | Rome |
| Materials | yellow gold, rose gold, white gold, diamond, malachite, mother-of-pearl, onyx, quartz, garnet | rose gold, yellow gold, white gold, diamond, enamel, malachite, mother-of-pearl, onyx |
| Moves | No | No |
| From | €1,860 | €1,670 |
| Top of line | €323,000 | €2,770 |
Prices in euros as published by each house, October 2026.
More with Serpenti
- Serpenti or Panthère de Cartier Cartier
- Serpenti or Nudo Pomellato