By Jovan Krstevski
Back at SIHH 2017, some kept scratching their heads because a new line-up has turned up with plenty of goodness to show. It is not all the time that the business gets disrupted like this but what can I say, Roger Dubuis just came to the SIHH with impressive new progressive complications and disruptive materials taking cues from the highest performing world industries. And of course he puts them all in his watches, so yeah win-win for everyone.
I’ve seen many skeletonized timepieces with highly unusual cases and the likes but Roger Dubuis promises to pack all these bravadoes into somewhat a traditional watch, it sounds very good to me. The new models include two innovative Pirelli Excalibur models in partnership with Pirelli, the 47 mm Excalibur Spider Pirelli (Double Flying Tourbillon) and the 45 mm Excalibur Spider Pirelli (Automatic Skeleton).
Excalibur Spider Pirelli (Double Flying Tourbillon)
This watch is powered by the new RD105SQ hand-wound caliber with its signature blue Astral Skeleton. There are only 8 pieces of this bad boy from Roger Dubuis boutiques only and for the lucky few, a 2 day VIP program awaits them organized by Pirelli himself at a motorsport race. For the petrol heads, this is a thing of beauty plus this is a rugged timepiece thanks to its use of black DLC titanium skeleton 47 mm case enhanced with vulcanized blue rubber accents highlighting the blued titanium crown.
Excalibur Spider (Automatic Skeleton)
As for this bad boy, its 45 mm skeletonized case that is enhanced by gold elements and contrasting black highlight houses the Caliber RD820SQ sporting an impressive and meticulously hand-crafted 167 components denoting the stringent quality criteria and prestigious finishing governing the “Poinçon de Genève” certification. You will find key Pirelli signature characteristics in the watch and of course, it comes with an invitation to extravagant local Pirelli events. This is limited to 88 pieces only.
Excalibur Spider Carbon
Another 28 pieces limited edition but this time it comes in a more striking red model with spider-like skeletonized case, Spiderman you say, well if he’s a petrol head, then why not. The tough case sports a DLC-treated crown and caseback made from titanium. As for its brute strength, we can thank carbon for its incredible material choice. Its innovation highlights its first ever movement plate, bridges and tourbillon upper-cage all made using T700 carbon. Of course, to make the technical side of this watch a bit less scary, machining T700 carbon is no easy feat. Its advantages are supreme going far beyond strength like having less vibrations resulting to superior precision and better power consumption.
Excalibur Quatuor Cobalt Micromelt
This cobalt blue watch excels at its use of very rare machining technique as it uses an exclusive Micromelt® technology that represents just 0.1% of worldwide metallurgy on its hefty 48 mm case along with bezel, caseback, and crown. And behind this mammoth container is the hand-wound 590 piece RD101 Quatuor movement sporting four sprung balances and five differentials beating at 4×4 Hz frequency or 115,200 vph. This technology achieves what no other tourbillon has by compensating for the rate variations caused by the effects of gravity on a watch. For more info, please visit rogerdubuis.com
