Bulgari has named Hudson Williams, the Canadian actor who leads the hit hockey series Heated Rivalry, as its newest ambassador. In a release dated October 7, 2026, in Rome, the house called him one of the most outstanding actors of his generation and pointed to his individual style, his artistic vision, and the presence that draws audiences in.
Bulgari has named Hudson Williams, who plays Shane Hollander in Crave's Heated Rivalry, its newest ambassador in a release dated October 7, 2026, in Rome. In his first official portraits for the house, he wears a gold watch, a gold chain, and a gold bracelet.
Williams framed the appeal in his own terms. “I’ve always been drawn to people and ideas that feel bold, original and unafraid to be themselves,” he said. “That’s what I love about Bulgari, there’s such a strong sense of individuality and creativity in everything. I’m excited to join the Bulgari family and see what we can create together.” Coming from the Roman house’s newest face, it reads like a mission statement.
The timing makes sense. Heated Rivalry, a Crave original created by Jacob Tierney and based on Rachel Reid’s best-selling Game Changers books, premiered on November 28, 2025. Williams plays Shane Hollander, a young Canadian hockey star whose secret relationship with his Russian rival, Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie, runs across eight years of their careers. Crave says the six-episode series became its biggest original debut on record, and the network renewed it for a second season in December 2025. In the US, it streams on HBO Max.
Hockey, it turns out, was new territory. In an interview Bell Media published ahead of the premiere, Williams admitted he didn’t grow up playing the game. “I’m a bad Canadian,” he said, adding that he reached out to friends who play to learn the terminology before he showed up on set.
The Hudson Williams Bulgari Portraits
The four official portraits released with the announcement are pared back and intimate. Williams sits against a pale gray backdrop in a taupe knit polo, with a gold chain at his neck, small hoops in his ears, a stack of rings, and a gold bracelet. In all four frames, he wears a gold watch with a dark dial on a black strap. Bulgari hasn’t said which watch or jewelry pieces appear in the images, so we’ll leave the identification to the house.
What the pictures make clear is that watches are part of the brief, not an afterthought.
That matters for a brand that sits in two worlds. Bulgari began in 1884, when Sotirio Bulgari, a Greek silversmith from Paramythia, opened his first boutique at Via Sistina 85 in Rome, selling his own silver alongside precious objects and antiques. Between 1895 and 1897, he added stores in Sanremo, Naples, Bellagio, and Sorrento.
More than a century later, the same name sits on some of the most technical watches made in Switzerland, including the record-setting Octo Finissimo line we covered in our roundup of its most unusual limited editions and the blue Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar released this summer.
An ambassador who wears jewelry and watches with the same ease lets Bulgari speak to both sides of that business at once. In our view, it is a smart signing. His first series has already traveled from Crave to HBO Max, so the partnership can grow with his career, and his own words about individuality line up neatly with a house built on bold design.
What comes next hasn’t been announced. Bulgari’s release doesn’t name a campaign, a collection, or a launch date for Williams’ first project, and no premiere date for season two appears in Crave’s releases we checked. For now, the portraits do the talking: a gold watch, a gold chain, and an actor who, less than a year after his first series premiered, is now the face of a Roman jeweler.
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