Roger Dubuis Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar

Jamie Weiss

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• Roger Dubuis celebrated its thirtieth anniversary at Watches and Wonders 2025 with a surprisingly restrained Excalibur that represents a brand new entry-level for the model.
• It’s nonetheless an expensive, sophisticated watch, with a pink gold case, mother-of-pearl dial and a brand new in-house motion with bi-retrograde day and date shows.
• At 40mm, it’s additionally now the smallest watch in Roger Dubuis’ vary.

Roger Dubuis is a considerably misunderstood model. Based in 1995 by the esteemed ex-Patek Philippe watchmaker, Roger Dubuis gained a cult following within the early 2000s because of its distinctive meld of conventional Genevan watchmaking and a contemporary, playful aptitude, with retro-modern designs just like the Sympathie emblematic of the home. Nonetheless, within the years since Mr. Dubuis’ retirement and the model’s acquisition by luxurious conglomerate Richemont, the model’s aesthetic departed drastically from Dubuis’ unique imaginative and prescient, eschewing conventional aesthetics for lambastic, modern types: early Roger Dubuis and fashionable Roger Dubuis watches look virtually nothing alike.

However is that set to alter in 2025? At Watches and Wonders this 12 months, the sensation from the Roger Dubuis sales space was that the model is poised to alter path because it celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. There was an eagerness to emphasize its historical past of manufacturing really radical and sophisticated watches in addition to its eye-catching designs, as demonstrated by the litany of spectacular historic timepieces exhibited on the sales space, together with Dubuis’ matriculation watch (a spotlight of the truthful for me). Their newest watch, too, the Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar, is likely to be one thing of a turning level: a brand new entry-level providing from the model that appears to raise Dubuis’ signature complication, biretrograde shows.

Initially, I say “entry-level”, however one thing that has remained constant all through Roger Dubuis’ historical past is that it has by no means been an reasonably priced model. Nonetheless, that is an 18k pink gold watch with an advanced in-house motion – it was by no means going to be low-cost. What’s attention-grabbing is that it ‘solely’ has a 40mm case: this makes it the smallest watch in RD’s present vary and sizes it extra consistent with a few of the model’s earlier items.

Talking of the motion, it’s a brand new calibre referred to as the RD840, which has an automatically-wound 60-hour energy reserve, beats at 4 Hz and like all Roger Dubuis watches, options Poinçon de Genève certification. It’s not essentially the most architecturally spectacular of all RD actions, nevertheless it has a novel design cue – a sentence in French written in cursive emblazoned round its periphery – studying: “C’est une montre actuelle, inspirée mais pas soumise au passé, qui se projette dans un futur qui nous appartient.” (“This can be a watch of at present, impressed however not restricted to the previous, projected right into a future that belongs to us.”)

Once more, like most Roger Dubuis watches, it’s the dial facet the place the motion actually occurs. Evocative of the Sympathie, two curvaceous, arching day and date scales at 3′ and 9′ take up a lot of the dial – the eponymous biretrograde calendar shows – whereas at 12′ and 6′, you’ll discover two arcs fashioned from mother-of-pearl. Within the 2000s, Roger Dubuis was one of many first watchmakers to make use of pink gold and mother-of-pearl in males’s watches, making using this materials one other tasteful nod to the previous.

The Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar’s dial is uniquely restrained for a up to date Roger Dubuis. The overwhelming majority of current watches from the model function skeletonised dials of some description – and in the event that they don’t, they’re both solely gem-set or function miniature paintings, just like the Knights of the Spherical Desk vary. So, to see a relatively easy dial with solely two small open sections utilizing mother-of-pearl and biretrograde shows that harken again to the model’s early glory days? It’s nothing wanting a breath of recent air.

To be clear, I’m a fan of each Roger Dubuis’ early, extra understated works in addition to the model’s high-tech fashionable creations, like their carbon fibre Excalibur flyback chronographs. These in search of a delicate watch ought to discover one other watchmaker; Roger Dubuis has at all times been extravagant, and that’s the a part of the market they play in. Nevertheless it’s additionally refreshing to see the model pay extra tribute to its foundational years and designs.

Are we more likely to see the Hommage and Sympathie – or watches like them – return to the vary any time quickly? In all probability not. Alongside the Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar, Roger Dubuis additionally launched the Excalibur Grande Complication, which mixes a perpetual calendar, a minute repeater and a tourbillon with an asymmetrical design and two micro-rotors. Roger Dubuis will stay a singularly bombastic model. However the Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar boasts a extra refined sensibility that I’m more than happy to see the model exhibit.

Roger Dubuis Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar pricing and availability

Availability of the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar has but to be confirmed to Time+Tide: whereas not like many Roger Dubuis items, it isn’t a restricted version, the character of the model implies that it’s more likely to be a restricted manufacturing, comparatively hard-to-come-by watch, regardless of its extra entry-level positioning. We are able to affirm that it’s a boutique unique, nevertheless. Value: A$98,000