Roger Dubuis

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SIHH 2013 PuristS Comprehensive Report: Roger Dubuis

Last Year's (2012) Star of the Show: The Pulsion Collection (all 2012 images from Oliver):

RD introduced this new collection. Its meant to be their sportive offering with open-worked dials and a sapphire crystal that acts as bezel at the same time.

An interesting solution that gives the watch a light yet tough appeal. The design also carries over a well-designed solution for the signature three lugs. I personally find open-worked dial usually too busy for my eyes but here it has been done with a nice balance of face vs. detail.

If you want to learn more of the 2012 novelties please read Oliver's report here.

2013 Main Theme: The year of the Excalibur:

As always, the Roger Dubuis booth at Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie is the one the majority of visitors is looking forward to see - its always exceptional! 

This year RD seizes the emblem of its city of origin and the Poinçon de Genève - the Crowned Eagle and the Key – to claim its quest for excellence and allegiance to the most demanding signature in Fine Watchmaking. 

RD sends a clear message at SIHH: A Roger Dubuis’ Eagle with 4.60 meters of wingspan...

... exerting a strong grip on the five tokens of excellence the brand wants to highlight (I am particularly enchanted to spot 'durability' here):

It seems that RD would like to be considered as the brand to be when it comes to the Poinçon. Remember, 100% of the RD watches are certified according to the criteria of the Poinçon so this has quite some substance.

I will post a dedicated article on the booth in the course of this week (time permitting).

And the theme of 2013? Watch and listen:

2013 is designated the Year of the Excalibur. And they demonstrated this with some truly outstanding novelties!

The Excalibur Quatuor plays on the key tasks of a watch, that is to keep time as precisely and as consistently as possible. To this end, the Manufacture Roger Dubuis set up a team of 40 experts of 21 different metièrs who invested 7 years of research.

The outcome is a pièce de résistance featuring in a 48mm case:

For an in-deepth presentation of the Quatuor with many, many live pics please refer to my recent article here on Purists!

2013 Star of the Show, runner up:  Roger Dubuis Excalibur Round Table

"The Knights of the Round Table had a solemn motto “Courage and generosity”. This motto succinctly captures the life philosophy at Roger Dubuis. Drawing inspiration from the exploits of King Arthur’s knights, the Geneva Manufacture has created a series of 88 exceptional pieces distinguished by their boldness and steeped in history." [Press Kit]

Roger Dubuis designers have drawn their inspiration from a reproduction of the Round Table made for Henry VIII and placed in the Grand Hall of his castle at Winchester.

"Twelve figures representing the legendary Knights of the Round Table with their swords make a perfect circle replacing traditional hour markers.  Each figure is a three-dimensional casting in gold with its fine details carved by hand. This breathtaking miniaturisation, the work of highly skilled passionate craftsmen, produces 12 quite different knights, only 7 mm tall." [Press Kit]

With meticulous craftsmanship, twelve of these heroes, armed with their faithful swords, have united around a magnificent dial in grand feu enamel replacing traditional hour markers:

On the back side a solid cold plate, covering the automatic calibre RD 821, reminds on what the knights symbolise:

"The best, the noblest and the purest of men were at King Arthur's (King of Camelot) side in combat, companions whose strength of arm was equalled only by their strength of character.

The bravery of the Knights of the Round Table knew no bounds and their faith was immense. Courage and valour were their supreme values and the legend tells how they went from battle to battle, from victory to victory, defending the cause of justice. While their heroism and their string of exploits built their reputation, their legend was assured by their search for the Holy Grail.

Lancelot, the most valiant knight, was considered to be the purest of them all. He was granted the honour of sitting at the table and Merlin declared: 'Around this table, the bravest knights will gather as equals. They will set forth in search of adventure, righting wrongs, protecting the weak, and humbling the proud'." [Press Kit, modified]

Thus is the inscription of the back:

On the wrist the Excalibur Round Table has quite some presence. Athough very detailed, exceptionally sculptural and certainly quite individual I think the watch is well wearable and mixes at surprising easy with your attire:

One last thing: I really like the classic design of the folding buckle:

Other Novelties 2013 (Excalibur): 

The Excalibur collection got a new 42mm automatic chronograph. 

The 42mm follows the elegant theme of the collection (see last year's report) and offer a lot of space. The usage of very few but bold details make it a very timeless watch. Something we have not seen often, I guess.

The finishing touches of the watch are carefully selected sunbursts and radial finishings. I have to applaud RD for paying attention to the correct representation of the different functions of the dial: timekeeping hands (here: red gold) are separated from the stopwatch functions (here: black):

The Excalibur 42mm Chrono is driven by a new automatic chronograph calibre RD681 with vertical clutch and micro-rotor. Composed of 280 components, it displays the hours, minutes and small seconds in a dial at 9 o’clock and the date in a window at 6 o’clock. Power reserve is 52h. The certification for the prestigious Geneva Seal is in progress.

The movement warrants some attention. I generally prefer handwound chronograph movements over automatic ones due to the simple fact that the latter's rotor usually obfuscates the delicate and intricate mechanics of the chronograph. And this is where the real action is! Not so the RD681, which offers almost the optical generosity of the manually wound siblings and combines it with the practicality of an automatically wound one.

One caveat: We have tried several pieces and we found the pusher feel to be different at each piece. Some of them were smooth while others were stiffer. This might well be teething problems which might be eliminated during serial production.

It came already with several dial options:

Here are a few in detail. Stainless steel with a blue dial:

Same case material but charcoal grey dial:

 

Red gold with an amber-brown dial:

 

A watch which looks perfectly at home even on smaller wrists:

 

For the ladies we got a 36mm Excalibur automatic watch. RD tried - successfully I think - to match their known watchmaking excellence with a marvellous exterior design. The characteristic Excalibur bezel with its 12 carves is set with 48 diamonds (0.99 carats). As engine acts the RD calibre 821 with 48 hours autonomy and a nice subseconds display.

The case is 36mm and made out of brushed red gold.  Its appearance is quite flat and thus will attract female wearers for sure!

On the red gold version its extreme preciousness continues with its bracelet: 708 brilliant-cut diamonds, totalling 4.25 carats, form two symmetrical rows on either side of the brushed centre. That makes a total of 5.24 carats.

There were also steel versions with either blue or silver dial. The are available with either leather strap or steel bracelet (with the latter not being adorned with diamonds). Thus the total caratage here is 0.99 carats on the bezel:

 

Another Excalibur novelty was this 42mm automatic watch in stainless steel with a new Cal. RD 640 (micro-rotor, 52h power reserve). It delves on the same theme as the chronograph (note the integration of the date into the 6 o'clock marker):

RD furthermore presented an Excalibur Double Skeleton Tourbillon. This is not a new watch but demonstrates the company's dedication towards product improvement. Its 45 mm case has been subtly redesigned to offer better ergonomics and greater comfort on the wrist. The new case is 12% thinner and the crown guard has been refined to create an ideal contrast with the black ceramic bezel and the screws. Movement is the known Cal. RD01SQ  double skeleton flying tourbillon with a differential system that averages the rates of the two tourbillons.

Designed as an alternative to the Excalibur 45 Double Skeleton Tourbillon, the Excalibur 42 Tourbillon Skeleton an ergonomic 42 mm case that incorporates the identifying codes of the Excalibur collection: sharp angles and a strong visual impact linked to a perfect mechanism.

 Other Novelties 2013 (Hommage): 

Also the Hommage collection got some love, and an intense love it was! Two impressive pieces were shown, we start with the most fascinating one, the Tribute to the Minute Repeater:

Its really hard to withstand the allure of the watch and certainly would need more mental strength and character than I possess! The combination of an inhouse minute repeater with flying tourbillon really shows what a manufacture is able create. This even more so as this piece is driven by an automatic movement fuelled by two micro-rotors. Total parts count is 415, all finished to the standards of the Geneva seal. Note also the centrifugal sound diffuser between the two hammers:

In terms of design I have to admit that I am generally not a fan of open-worked dials. But in this case I will concede that RD did it with taste and mastery. I personally could have done well without the literature on the bottom part.

The timepiece also highlights the new Hommage case with is a development from the legacy ones. It has been slightly modified and now features redesigned lugs to improve wearing comfort and a bezel with a steeper acclivity:

I have to say that this is a magic piece, regardless of the wealth of complications inside. Just look at the below image and appreciate the glow that is in the details of the hands and the hour ring!

One of the 8 pieces on the wrist. Fantastic 48mm of watchmaking excellence!

We will certainly revisit this watch at a later time point. Same applies to the next one: 

The second novelty in the Hommage collection is this Flying Tourbillon with Big Date, also with the updated case. They showed us a version with diamonds on the bezel (well, this is not exactly a novelty but I thought I show it anyway):

The dials is made of mother-of-pearl. I really like its plainness as this emphasises the luscious hands.

A second emphasis is given on the flying tourbillon which doubles as seconds hand...

... and which is matched by a corresponding opening on the back:

Powerful wrist-presence:

There were other colour combination on display as well, unfortunately we could not take them out of their showcases. This one had a fascinating opalescent-blueish gleam:

 

Other Novelties 2013 (Velvet): 

The Velvet collection got one new member, the Velvet High Jewellery. Set with 304 diamonds arranged in invisible settings that seem to magnify the precious stones the timepieces carries total approximately 13.61 carats.

That's it for 2013. It was an impressive year for Roger Dubuis with two new greatly complicated watches, a totally new case material and at least one really impressive manifestation of sculpture. Furthermore, both the Excalibur as well as the Hommage collection benefitted from refinement of the case which improved both aesthetics as well as wearing comfort (case size, lugs, flatness etc.).

What remains now in my view is something that would reemphasise the reference to the Genevan watchmaking tradition. I am referring to a delicious hand-wound movement, finished to highlight the specific art of construction and decoration that is typical to the timepieces made in the eastmost canton of Switzerland. Well, one can always dream!

We will have more in-depth presentations of some of the novelties in the course of the next months. Stay tuned!

Cheers and thanks for reading,

Magnus