Partnerships between luxury motoring brands and luxury watchmakers are nothing new. It’s no surprise when you consider the clientele the two sectors tend to attract — generally well-heeled, deep-pocketed and with a serious penchant for the finer things in life — that it makes sense for carmakers and watchmakers to link up and share the spoils, as it were.

The timepieces born of these collaborations can — and often do — lack the kind of imagination and design-led philosophy that makes a fine timepiece worth its invariably hefty price tag, with boring exercises in co-branding commonplace. However, in the case of Bulgari’s partnership with Maserati, which has been ongoing since 2012, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The latest piece to emerge from this all-Italian collaboration is the Maserati Bulgari Octo. Officially presented at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show alongside Maserati automobiles, and also appearing at the Dubai Motor Show as well as Dubai Watch Week, the Octo Maserati, which is available in either GranLusso or GranSport variants, is a seriously good-looking timepiece designed for serious fans of horology.

Following the naming convention used for Maserati’s cars, the GranSport is a sportier, more aggressive-looking timepiece, while the GranLusso is lavishly appointed with opulent touches to give it more of a luxurious aesthetic and feel. While both watches come with a Gerald Genta-esque Octo case — octagonal shape with a round bezel — on the GranSport the case comes in DLC-coated steel, while the luxurious GranLusso comes in sumptuous 18k pink gold.

The dials show up more differences between the GranSport and the GranLusso, with the former bearing a black dial, silver indexes and hands, and a smattering of blue accents, and the latter coming with a dark grey dial and gold accents. Both cases have a diameter of 41.5mm and provide water resistance to 100m.

Apart from the differences in the case material and dial colours, both watches are largely the same. At first sight the watch appears simplistic and almost basic, thanks to the clean, crisp dial design, which shows just hours and minutes. However, the real beauty of the Octo Maserati is the ingenious way in which the hours an minutes are displayed — with a retrograde minute hand and a jumping hour display, placed in a window at the three o’clock position that would more commonly be used to display the date.

The result is a beautiful-looking timepiece that is very much reminiscent of the dashboard on a Maserati, with the minute hand resembling the rev indicator, which jumps back down to zero after hitting 60.

Inside, both timepieces are powered by Bulgari’s in-house BVL 262 automatic movement, which beats at 4Hz and has an impressive 42-hour power reserve. While this movement can be seen on many of Bulgari’s other timepieces, it’s worth noting that it has been modified extensively here to accommodate the retrograde minutes and jumping hours complications. Flip the watch over and the inner workings are visible through a tinted sapphire crystal display caseback, partially obstructed by the iconic Maserati logo.

Neither version of the Octo Maserati will be especially easy to come by. The GranSport (ref. 102717) in black DLC steel is priced at $12,800, while the GranLusso with pink gold case (ref. 102906) costs $30,700. But here’s the catch: they are only available to Maserati owners and they can only be bought by presenting the vehicle’s keys or registration at Bulgari boutiques. Now that’s what you call exclusive!