Excalibur Spider Automatic Skeleton

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 Automatic Skeleton

Synonymous with the contemporary outdoor, automobile-inspired vibe embodied in the Roger Dubuis ‘Technical Skeletons’, the Excalibur Spider Automatic Skeleton offers a fresh expression of the talent and ingenuity deployed by the ‘pioneer of contemporary skeletons’, showcasing its ability to raise this workmanship to the rank of a contemporary art form. Issued in an 88-piece limited edition this stunningly handsome interpretation attired in pink gold offers its own distinctive take on this vibrant microcosm of technical and architectural mechanics.

The warm glow of the precious metal is beautifully offset by the grade 5 titanium bezel and case back, the black PVD brass skeleton upper-ange, the black minutecircle matching the vulcanized rubber details on the crown and the container, as well as the pink gold hand tips. The theme of contrasts is also expressed through nishing textures, notably including polished chamfers and satin-brushed sides.

To ensure optimal readability by night and day, the applied screws on the ange as well as the tips of the hands sweeping across the dial are enhanced with Super-LumiNova®.

The distinctive multi-material strap with its black rubber base, grey calf leather inlay and grey stitching, is secured by a DLC-treated titanium folding buckle.