Manufacture Roger Dubuis updates one of its most important contributions to haute horlogerie, the modern skeleton.
In an industry that tends to measure itself in centuries, Roger Dubuis, which turned 21 this year, is something like a child prodigy. The company burst onto the watchmaking scene with impressive in-house horological know-how and a design sense all its own. From its earliest days in 1995, the company, which is named for its founding master watchmaker, has both shaken up and embraced aspects of the Swiss watchmaking industry and its conservative capital, Geneva. It is in that Swiss city that Roger Dubuis’s modern headquarters—chock full of state-of-the-art CNC equipment and a large department dedicated to hand-finishing components—sets the standard for quality, precision, efficiency and innovation in watchmaking.
Roger Dubuis is the only watchmaker that currently certifies every timepiece that it makes with the Poinçon de Genève, an elite watchmaking hallmark dating from the 19th century that mandates meticulous finishing of all surfaces of the movement, even those never to be seen by anybody but a watchmaker. Originally created as a method for foiling unscrupulous watch forgers, the Geneva Seal now distinguishes the canton’s elite watchmakers.
But Manufacture Roger Dubuis is not afraid to experiment with shapes and materials that the old boys network of watchmakers who also pursue the Geneva Seal would not touch. The company was instrumental in pioneering the modern skeleton movement, a watch category with architecturally sculpted plates and bridges that have been conceived from the beginning as a skeleton. More than anything, Roger Dubuis has proven that a watchmaker can attract new fans by being progressive in its approach to the craft, while still honoring the centuries-old codes of haute horlogerie.
The company’s CEO, Jean-Marc Pontroué, doesn’t see his real competition coming from other high-end watchmakers per se, but from disparate categories whose unifying commonality is that they elicit strong emotions, such as contemporary art and ultra-luxury automotive marques like Ferrari and Lamborghini.
“After all, when you are selling a $200,000 skeleton tourbillon, you are in the emotional business, not the rational business,” says Pontroué.
As high-end watch collectors know, skeletonization is a traditional watchmaking craft that originated with specialists manually sculpting unfinished mechanical movements and decorating them, through an intensive process of stripping away all but their frames. When the traditional craft is complete, what remains is a “skeleton” of the original movement, allowing the wearer an open view of the mechanism’s inner workings. As a young brand that is creating new movements every year, Roger Dubuis took the novel approach of designing skeleton calibers from the ground up, transforming the category from a type of finishing to a way of engineering movements.
Enfant Terrible
It is clear that Roger Dubuis prefers to do things differently. That much was evident when the company embraced avant-garde designs while also aligning itself with the Geneva Seal, the best-known quality hallmark in haute horlogerie. It was also on display with the most recent SIHH launch of a range of timepieces, Velvet, comprising entirely of products designed for women.
High-end watchmakers have traditionally trained their focus on male collectors, releasing women’s collections that lack the same creativity spent on watches for men. At their worst, these collections are merely scaled down copies of men’s watches—a thoroughly uninspired proposition that Roger Dubuis, it should be noticed, has never really been about.
Pontroué sensed an opportunity to provide women with original haute horlogerie products, which, in the spirit of the modern skeleton, had been conceived and designed from the beginning for a female clientele. Other brands could continue with the worn-out status quo of miniaturizing their men’s collection and selling it to women, but Pontroué was determined to do something more original and interesting.
Carbon Skeleton
Among the sea of women’s watches in the haute couture theme of Roger Dubuis’ 2016 SIHH new product releases was one notable exception—the new Excalibur Automatic Skeleton Carbon watch. Introduced in rose gold and titanium last year, the watch marks the first time that one of the most iconic of Roger Dubuis’s contributions to haute horlogerie, the modern skeleton, has come in a self-winding format. The look of the timepiece conjures that of one of the manufacture’s most popular models, the skeletonized tourbillon, while delivering a much more enticing value proposition.
By marrying the skeleton movement with a case crafted from carbon fiber, Roger Dubuis has created a timepiece of exceptional lightness. In fact, it weighs only 71.699 grams, strap included. The movement accounts for just under 20 grams of this weight, and the case is about 40 grams. Each facet of the RD820SQ movement’s 167 parts is meticulously finished by hand. Making the movement is a massive undertaking that requires 530 hours of total manufacturing time, 170 of which are dedicated to meeting the requirements of the Geneva Seal. The movement packs a power reserve of 60 hours via a single spring barrel and a microtor.
The case itself is created using a combination of forged carbon and resin. But even with this unorthodox case composition, the key elements that have come to define the Excalibur case shape remain. These include crenelations along the outer edge of the bezel, a large 42 mm case shape, and a three-point lug configuration. The DLC-coated brass movement has a glossy black hue that complements the case shape, and the red accents on the dial continue the sporty look that has strong ties to sport-automotive design.
Geneva Seal
For many years, the Geneva Seal applied only to watch movements, but in 2011, the prestigious hallmark underwent a revamping that expanded its purview to include the finished watch. The watch is tested to ensure it complies with chronometric standards and water resistance minimums, that its complications work, and that its claimed power reserve can be verified. Additionally, Time Lab, the independent governing body responsible for administering the Seal, now makes quality control visits at least monthly in order to audit watchmaking operations at the factory. The level of oversight and the strictures imposed by the Seal go a long way toward explaining why less than 10 brands currently apply for the hallmark.
Pricing for the Excalibur Automatic Skeleton Carbon is $63,600. This compares to $70,600 for the rose gold edition and $57,800 for DLC titanium.
Looking Ahead
Even as the skeleton automatic has opened Roger Dubuis to a wider range of collectors, pricier and rarer complications will continue to be a focus for the brand at January’s SIHH in Geneva. Pontroué wasn’t at liberty to divulge much in the way of details, though he promised a handful of new releases that will include complications so far nonexistent in the market. It’s a bold claim to make in an industry in which it is said that everything has already been invented. But Pontroué and the brand he heads are certainly not averse to bold maneuvers. – Jonathan Bues