Last week I had the privilege and the pleasure to attend an event hosted by Roger Dubuis (RD), together with Lamborghini and PuristsPro (with special thanks to one PuristS Prime!) I’ve not had close exposure to either brands, so it was definitely something I was very much looking forward to! Below is a not-so-brief report (the good photos are credited to Lamborghini and the not so good ones to me…)

RD has been on a bit of a motorsports tear the past year, with the announcement of a collaboration/partnership with Pirelli and subsequently the Raging Bull. In light of this, the aim of the event was to bring together clients and owners of the brands (and as we all know there is a pretty large overlap between watch nerds and car geeks!) and well, pretty much just have a fantastic time and hopefully learn a little more about each.

People flew in from all over the Americas and met at La Quinta Resort near Palm Springs; and I really do mean all over - New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Texas, Venezuela, and of course L.A. to name but a few places. A wonderful time was had by all I’m confident in saying. The combination of good food, free flowing drinks, interesting watches, fast cars, and great people is a combination that’s hardly likely to go wrong.





On the first evening a welcome dinner was waiting for us. Whilst the expectation was a nice, if somewhat predictable, fine dining venue it was quite a surprise to find a setup in the middle of the desert waiting for us, complete with 4x4s for ‘desert safaris’. The setting was very memorable and unique. Of course there were some nice watches for us to play with too...and CEO Jean-Marc gave a nice welcome speech.















The second day and main course was a day at Thermal Springs for the Lamborghini Experienza course. Thermal Springs (awesome name I have to say) is a private track/club in the area, and very well equipped with multiple setups of the track (the ‘full’ circuit is 5.1 miles / 8.0km so actually pretty long), karting, reception facilities, restaurant, private lots etc. It was a scorching day, with no clouds and ambient temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius/104 Fahrenheit, meaning track temperatures over 49C/120F…Again, hats off to the organization team as the circuit was a great venue.









RD had watches flowing freely which we were welcome to try on (and some even drove with them on!) It was great to hear direct from the brand CEO Jean-Marc and other management figures, and one could very easily hear their passion and their strong desire to grow in the U.S. and Americas. I certainly didn’t know that their entire production is stamped with the Geneva hallmark, and I believe they are the only brand with this distinction! Whilst my personal taste tends generally towards modern classical, this experience was a reminder why it’s always good to be open-minded; the direction RD has gone today is very different from its origins, but that’s by design and I very much enjoyed looking at and spending time with the pieces. Make no mistake, they’re very, very modern and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I don’t believe they’re trying this at all; rather they’d like to find the client base that matches well with their designs and ideas. In particular, the skeleton pieces were much more impressive in person than in pictures. Their depth and three dimensionality don’t come across as well in 2D images, nor do the interesting finishing treatments. Whilst the watches are large (often 45mm or so plus), they often wear a lot smaller due to the short and sharply downward sloping lugs.





Quad-balance beast...












The new Excalibur Aventador S was a mean looking watch, and technically pretty interesting with dual-inclined balances connected via a differential, deadbeat seconds, carbon fiber case, interesting skeletonization etc. Again, hard to capture the depth in a picture. If I had an Aventador it would be kind of fun to pair the car with the watch!



There were a lot of other pieces on display, and like Lamborghinis they may seem pretty loud at first glance but once you dig in, you discover the incredible thought, care, and attention to detail. My favourite was the Excalibur Spider Pirelli skeleton. The price point is (relatively) more accessible, it was very comfortable for a large watch, and the micro-rotor movement architecture is pretty unique. The rubber for the straps is taken from the tires of a GP winning F1 car, and the various colors correspond to the different tyre range (blue for wets, red for supersofts, yellow for softs). Interestingly, there are still four tyre colors to match...





A ‘pit stop’ for watches was also present, where a RD watchmaker was happy to have a look at any watch and do a quick check. My Rolex BLNR is -0.9secs/day which is pretty good, although I’d prefer + rather than -.



For the Experienza course, the Lamborghini team had ready the Huracan (610-4), Aventador S (740-4), and the new Huracan Performante (640-4). Being able to drive the latter was particularly enticing as the US launch was only a week or so prior; I’m fairly sure our small group were some of the first in the country to drive it hard on track. I’m traditionally more of a prancing horse guy, and most of my track experience has been in Radicals or the mid-engine F-cars (a big soft spot for the Scuderia...) As a result, I was very much looking forward to the chance to drive these bulls somewhat hard, and the experience was quite the pleasure. The Performante in particular was a real, real thrill to drive; we (or at least I) didn’t drive with the electronics all off but Corsa mode had enough play to make you feel like a hero. The ‘regular’ Huracan is a fantastic and tremendously exciting car by any measure, but on track did pale in the presence of the Performante (just as the 430 does to the Scuderia, 458 to Speciale etc.); the former has a sharpness that gave confidence without the ‘knife’s edge’ feeling that you can often find in mid-engined performance/track cars, and the V10 sounds glorious. The Aventador S has supreme presence, the unmistakeable scissor doors, and an incredible engine note that conjures some very filthy thoughts; it was also a first for me to drive a car with four wheel steering which was interesting and I’d like to spend more time with it. However, it was a large car and honestly not as suited to the track as the other two, at least in my meager hands.
























The day ended with a lovely outdoor dinner back at the hotel, and our table shared some nice wine to boot (and of course some night caps afterwards...)







After a nice breakfast the following morning, it was back off to LAX to fly back to New York. A whirlwind three days, and my sincere thanks to the hosts as it was a real privilege and pleasure to spend time with them and the other guests. Looking forward to what Roger Dubuis and Lamborghini have coming next, and this experience was a great reminder that it can be fun to have a look outside your comfort zone.








This message has been edited by ThomasM on 2017-10-30 14:44:34