Blaise-Dominique Giuliani is a French designer and entrepreneur known for founding Bohen, an independent watch brand based in Marseille. With a professional background rooted in the luxury industry, Giuliani spent the early 2000s working for established watchmaking houses. During this period, he specialized in product design but often felt constrained by the commercial requirements of mass production, marketing budgets, and prevailing industry trends.
Giuliani describes himself as a self-taught technician in the horological field. He developed his technical knowledge through extensive travel and study in the Doubs valley, a region with a deep watchmaking heritage. His entry into the professional circle was initially met with skepticism due to his background in Parisian haute couture and his tendency to design complex, “concept” style timepieces that were expensive to manufacture. However, he persisted in refining his craft, ensuring his original designs met the rigorous mechanical and physical constraints of watchmaking.
In creating Bohen, Giuliani aimed to establish a “privileged space” where he could produce high-level watches without compromise. His philosophy centers on “Grand Ouvrage,” focusing on artisanal quality, hand-finishing, and technical innovation rather than logo-driven branding. Under his leadership, the brand has introduced notable features such as the world’s first internal date magnifier and high-specification dive watches like the Mille-Mer and StarDiver. While the designs are French, Giuliani entrusts production to Swiss manufacturers to ensure the “Swiss Made” standard of precision.
Beyond his technical roles, Giuliani manages Bohen as a direct-to-consumer family business. This model is designed to eliminate traditional retail markups, allowing for high manufacturing costs to be balanced by a lack of intermediaries. His personal passion for horology was sparked at age eight by a modest 1975 manual-winding Kelton watch, a gift from his grandmother that he still maintains today. This early experience informs his commitment to creating durable, racy, and rare timepieces intended to be passed down through generations.