The excitement is building for this year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) happening in Geneva, Switzerland, next week. Now we are learning more about a fascinating pair of new timepieces from luxury watchmaker Roger Dubuis. Two intricate skeleton-work designs are being added to the Excalibur line.
The very name Excalibur arouses images of the court of King Arthur and the legends surrounding the Knights of the Round Table. The collection from Roger Dubuis lives up to the name with design features like a round case, triple lugs, fluted bezel and dedicated Dauphine hands.
According to Roger Dubuis, the Excalibur line was inspired by the world of the warrior and this is how he describes this influence on the collection: “fierce and yet peaceable: a chivalrous combat to overcome all obstacles and to fly high the banner of architectural and technical mechanics – as well as of the Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark borne by all of its creations.”
The result is a line of watches that is both exciting and unconventional, qualities that abound in the 2015 Excalibur Spider Collection. These unique watches carry the skeleton theme past just the movement and extend it to the skeletonised case, hands and flange. Add to this the intricacies of a spider’s web and you have the essence of the Excalibur Spider Skeleton Tourbillon.
The Excalibur Spider Skeleton Flying Tourbillon carries on the trademarks of the earlier Roger Dubuis skeleton watches including the tourbillon carriage in the shape of a Celtic cross, star-shaped design and circular-grained plate. The open-worked 45mm case contains a mechanical hand-wound RD505SQ movement.
The 42mm Excalibur Automatic Skeleton packs a new micro-rotor into a pin gold case and bezel frame. An eye-catching 3D effect is achieved by elevating the Roger Dubuis trademark skeleton star shape over the open-worked micro-rotor. Dubuis describes the result as “the first skeletonised automatic movement with a micro-rotor.” For even more stylish elegance, every face of the 167 parts that make up the in-house RD820SQ automatic skeleton caliber have been polished individually.
At SIHH 2015, these otherworldly creations will be displayed in an appropriately dreamlike fantasy land encompassing the Roger Dubuis themes of skeleton-work and its many interpretations.
The brand’s Creative Director Alvaro Maggini gave this tantalizing hint as to what those attending this year’s SIHH can expect. “People entering the Roger Dubuis booth will feel as if they are being drawn into a mesmerizing constellation where they will be given a unique opportunity to grasp the mysteries of the Roger Dubuis ‘stars’: its skeleton calibres.
“They will experience a sense of being allowed to glimpse exceptional secrets with an undeniably cosmic dimension as they witness the opening and closing of an ‘eye’ that at once protects the manufacture while paradoxically revealing its mechanical enigmas.”
These creations from Roger Dubuis, along with new models from 15 other names in fine watches, will be on display at the 2015 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie taking place January 19-23.
