Excalibur Spider Carbon

Excalibur ramps up its avant-garde engineering credentials for a high-paced new age of adventure

Ready to rumble

2017 sees Roger Dubuis take the fast track with the introduction of stunning world premieres as well as the big reveal of its brand-new alliance with Pirelli, a perfect match on all key levels and a kindred spirit in delivering money can’t buy experiences. A stunning embodiment of what can happen when visionary engineers meet incredible watchmakers.

Roger Dubuis has accustomed its followers to the annual unveiling of world premieres from its ever-busy innovation pipeline, which represents the almost ‘organic’ result of the Manufacture’s ongoing investments in Research & Development.

2017 is no exception, as the Manufacture introduces its ‘Dare to be Rare’ concept summing up its bold approach to watchmaking and its determination to take the road less travelled. This perpetually forwardlooking attitude is expressed through a combination of progressive complications and disruptive materials’ inspired by performance-oriented industries.

These overarching principles are vividly summed up in two ground-breaking Excalibur models developed in collaboration with Pirelli, as well as through a pair of world-first innovations. The Maison also proudly presents dynamic new iterations of models that have already found their place on techand design-lovers’ wrists around the world.

Excalibur, the iconic and deliberately extravagant Roger Dubuis collection, is embedded in the DNA of the Maison. It epitomises the boldly adventurous nature of a Manufacture that has always been determined to stay several laps ahead of the pack. It also provides the perfect showcase for the Astral Skeleton principle of star-patterned skeleton movements, now frequently paired with the signature Spider concept that extends openworking beyond the calibre to encompass key external watch elements.

Visitors to the SIHH will immediately pick up the engineering-driven vibe rocking the Roger Dubuis world and entirely in sync with the explosive, iconoclastic stage-setting. The deliberately destabilising decor showcases the Maison’s talent for shattering codes and blasting conventions, fragmenting them into apparently disparate splinters and then reassembling them in entirely novel ways – as exemplied by a stunningly avant-garde visual interpretation of the Manufacture itself.

The Roger Dubuis ‘disruptive materials and progressive complications’ mantra is forcefully expressed through its ongoing challenge to all-comers: Dare to be Rare. Earth, water, air and re: the elemental, alternately smouldering and scorching forces of aesthetic and technical designs are brought to blazing life in a devastatingly beautiful Excalibur eruption.

Craters, ssures, seething magma, an interplay of geometry and asymmetry reminiscent of the Astral Skeleton signature… all herald a tectonic shift, a quantum leap into the next Excalibur aeon.

Excalibur Spider Carbon

Roger Dubuis ‘releases the beast’ at the SIHH 2017 with the world premiere Excalibur Spider Carbon.

This striking black and red model features a Spider-type skeletonised case with a DLCtreated crown, case-back and ‘container’, all made from titanium. The light yet sturdy material is teamed here with multi-layered carbon for the case, as well as vulcanized rubber on the container and red lacquer lighting up the bezel. Even more importantly, it introduces the rst-ever movement plate, bridges and tourbillon upper-cage entirely made in carbon. The result is a mainplate and case forming a ‘chassis’ that is rendered even lighter by this choice of material.

The honeycomb dial decor inspired by automobile radiator grilles creates a perfect high-tech background against which to highlight this Calibre RD509SQ, an ‘Astral Skeleton’ ying tourbillon movement beating at a rate of 21,600 vibrations per hour and beneting from a 70-hour power reserve.

Such an amazing technical feat, further complicated by the skeletonised nature of the calibre, is made possible by the particularly rigid nature of this T700 carbon that results in less vibrations and enhanced precision. Its ultra-thin layered structure, achieved by a sophisticated impregnation process, results in a number of useful properties.

These include a uniform structure enabling 8% lower porosity compared with most other types of carbon, along with a substantial 30% reduction in weight that facilitates the rotation of the tourbillon upper-cage. The 10°-angled layers applied to the calibre plate and bridges call for a sophisticated production process and are a ne example of dedicating technical expertise to serving aesthetics.

Their purpose is to reproduce the same motifs on the movement as those appearing on the case middle. Gripping the wrist (and the imagination) with its strap featuring a rubber base and red RubberTech fabriclike inlay, rmly secured by a DLC-coated titanium folding clasp, the Excalibur Spider Carbon is issued in a 28-piece limited edition.

An exclusive production run that is bound to inspire enthusiasts in rising to the ‘Dare to be Rare’ challenge set by Roger Dubuis.