Actress Rachel Weisz smoulders as a latter-day Cleopatra in Bulgari’s Serpenti Eternal Beauty Collection.

The collection which includes rings, earrings, bracelets, and – for the first time – necklaces, pays tribute to one of Bulgari’s most iconic symbols – the Serpenti snake.

Available in yellow or rose gold, the jewels were designed as parures and their design have a distinctive suppleness of form and purity.

Perhaps the most striking pieces within the new collection are the Serpenti watches, which wrap the wrist in spirals of rose gold covered in scales of glossy black or ivory white with brilliant-cut diamonds. The watch case comes in the form of a serpent’s head and contains a Swiss quartz movement specially designed by Bulgari.

Both sides of the watches present 6 brilliant-cut diamonds that frame black sapphire or white mother-of-pearl, whilst 12 additional diamonds mark the hours on the dial.

The bracelets and rings, meanwhile, are characterised by a stylised spiral form and come with one or two coils, whilst a series of elaborately crafted elements simulate the scales of a Serpenti, which are connected by the interlocking of fine gold pins to form elegant spirals.

The Serpenti Collection exudes seduction, power, mystery and eternity – the same qualities which Cleopatra possessed. Launched just in time for the Chinese Year of the Snake, the advertising campaign was photographed by the legendary Annie Leibovitz and Rachel Weisz channels a modern day Goddess luxuriating against a backdrop of granite mountains and on a parched landscape, reminiscent of the ancient temples of Egypt.