The Roger Dubuis Excalibur | family history
Roger Dubuis built the Excalibur as a deliberately theatrical watch: the 20-piece screw-ring bezel, skeleton chapter ring, and openworked dial architecture are the brand's trademark vocabulary. The Double Flying Tourbillon is the family's horological apex, but the automatic entry reference communicates the same aesthetic at a more accessible price.
Roger Dubuis's flagship collection: twelve-pointed case inspired by the Knights of the Round Table, home to the Maison's most spectacular skeletonized movements and double flying tourbillons.
1995-2005 · Roger Dubuis the watchmaker and the brand's founding period
Roger Dubuis founded his eponymous brand in Geneva in 1995 after decades at Patek Philippe and Gerald Genta's studio. The brand positioned itself as ultra-luxe from the start, applying Geneva Seal standards to small-batch production. Early references established the brand's fondness for skeleton dials and architectural bezels.
No references from this era in the catalog yet.
2006-present · The Excalibur as brand cornerstone
The Excalibur launched in 2006 as a round-case alternative to the Hommage and Sympathie lines. The 20-part knurled screw-ring bezel and the transparent chapter ring became the family's identifying marks. The Calibre RD821 automatic carries the basic Excalibur reference; the Double Flying Tourbillon (two flying tourbillons rotating around a central axis at 30 RPM) is the family's most technically ambitious variant. Roger Dubuis was acquired by the Richemont group in 2008 and production has scaled accordingly.
How to read this family
Two questions for Excalibur buyers:
- Is the Double Flying Tourbillon technically significant? Two independently oscillating flying tourbillons rotating around a common axis is a genuine engineering achievement that requires significant tolerancing precision. Whether it improves accuracy over a single tourbillon is contested; the mechanical complexity is its own justification for many buyers.
- What is the brand's standing in the secondary market? Roger Dubuis secondary market values have trended below retail for most references, which is common for ultra-luxury brands with lower name recognition than Rolex or Patek. Buyers who want the mechanical complexity and aesthetic at secondary prices have historically found good value; buyers who want secondary appreciation should look elsewhere.
Related families: Urwerk UR-105