Excalibur Automatic Skeleton Carbon

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Excalibur Automatic Skeleton Carbon - Roger Dubuis
1 minute read
Roger Dubuis unveils a new version of its iconic model the Excalibur Automatic Skeleton.

First presented at the SIHH 2015, the Excalibur Automatic Skeleton became Roger Dubuis’ irst non-tourbillon skeleton timepiece, powered by its first skeletonised automatic movement. For its brave new charge in 2016, this all-conquering model now appears in a spectacular new interpretation clad in a high-tech composite known as carbon ibre sheet moulding compound (SMC).

In its latest iteration, the Excalibur Automatic Skeleton has been treated to some brand-new gear that proves an ideal match for its avant-garde tech-watch approach. A lightweight material greatly appreciated in the aerospace industry with its need for fuel-efficient aircraft, sheet moulding compound (SMC) boasts extremely high productivity and cost efficiency, while also enabling excellent part reproducibility and the possibility of creating components with complex shapes and integrated functions. SMC is produced by com- pressing carbon fibres with resin and steel moulded at extremely high temperatures, which is then reworked and compounded with resin.

Excalibur Automatic Skeleton Carbon

The RD820SQ automatic skeleton calibre is equipped with an openworked version of the signature Roger Dubuis micro-rotor introduced in 2005 and delivering winding power equivalent to that of a central rotor. Undaunted by the challenge of reducing the weight of this micro-rotor by skeletonising it while also maintaining its eficiency, the Roger Dubuis watchmakers also played with the height of the micro-rotor as well as raising the star shape to create fascinating 3D effects.

Despite the size and nature of the self-win- ding train and micro-rotor, these horological Warriors have also succeeded in keeping the skeleton-work delightfully transparent. Each of the 167 movement components is meti- culously hand-inished on all faces in accor- dance with the stringent requirements of the Poinçon de Genève certiication.

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