Roger Dubuis is not a brand you could ever accuse of ticking along quietly. Recent years have been all about the brand’s associations with Italian automotive royalty, and the pre-SIHH teaser model was an Excalibur that shares a name and several supercar styling cues with the Nürburgring-punishing Lamborghini Hurucàn Performante supercar.
No chance, then, that the watchmaker would go all meek and mild for SIHH itself. The headline piece in fact cranks up the horsepower even more – from supercar to hyper.
They have called the watch the Excalibur One-off. A name like that does not indicate shyness, and this unique piece announces its presence in quite some style. The teaser video shows the cages of the double flying tourbillon spinning furiously like tyres burning rubber, and as the camera pans out the watch is framed by seductive glimpses of a mysterious supercar.
The source of inspiration is Lamborghini’s new road-legal yet track-focussed SC18 Alston hypercar, which was developed by the company’s racing arm Squadra Corse and appears to be the result of a client going to Lamborghini and saying: “I really like the Aventador, but it is a touch on the conservative side for me – any chance we could just zhoosh things up a little?” The result is a car full of beautifully aggressive angles that could have been sliced with a samurai’s blade.
The One-off has a purpose-built movement, the RD106SQ, with the flying tourbillon built to look like V-shaped cylinder block on a Lamborghini engine. The dial features a double-digit jumping hour like the speedo in a modern Lamborghini, while the minute hand spins alone around the dial like a rev counter. The watch also celebrates the third partner in the collaboration, Pirelli – Lambo’s loyal tyre maker. Every massive tyre made for Lamborghini is purpose-built by Pirelli and marked with an L, and the watch has an L-branded rubber and nylon mesh strap.
Roger Dubuis also unveiled a watch based on the “normal” Lamborghini Huracàn – in so much as any car or watch in this conversation could ever be thought of like that. Although the Excalibur Huracàn is by no means a shy and retiring watch, the monochrome nature of the blackened bridges and the grey Alcantara-inlaid rubber strap gives it a very stealthy look, at least compared to the red-accented One-off. But it could still not be anything other than a Roger Dubuis, and fans wouldn’t have that any other way.
But it is not all about revving engines. The final reveal was a beautifully diamond-set version of the Excalibur. Most watch brands avoid labelling their watches according to gender, but Roger Dubuis is happy to say that the heavily-iced Excalibur Shooting Star is not only “designed for women”, but also “exudes all the audacity any girl could wish for”. It is not just pretty, you see, but also contains a manual-winding movement, with the expected Poinçon de Genève certification. Because whether they are revving engines or setting diamonds, Roger Dubuis likes to remind us that they take the watchmaking stuff very seriously indeed.
Roger Dubuis Excalibur One-off
Technical Specifications
Movement
Purpose-built hand-wound RD106SQ jumping hours movement with double flying tourbillon assembled on two planes linked by a differential, with a 90-degree angle between. 60-hour power reserve.
Case
47mm, C-SMC carbon with accents in red varnish and ceramic bezel with red liquid ceramic minute markers.
Strap
Rubber and nylon mesh
Roger Dubuis Excalibur Huracàn
Technical Specifications
Movement
Automatic RD630 automatic movement with 60-hour power reserve.
Case
45mm skeletonised titanium over-moulded with black rubber.
Strap
Black rubber with grey Alcantara inlay.
Roger Dubuis Excalibur Shooting Star
Technical Specifications
Movement
Manual-winding RD510SQ with flying tourbillon. 60 hours power reserve.
Case
Skeletonised 36mm pink gold set with round diamonds.
Strap
Blue or pink alligator
