You are unveiling La Placide at the heart of your new Geneva lounge. What does this place represent?
This lounge opens a new chapter for the Maison. We imagined it as a space for sharing, conversations, openness and experiences.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Roger Dubuis, it also allows the entire history of the brand to be revisited. The boutique brings together several emblematic codes, faithful to his initial intention when he founded his eponymous maison.
Roger Dubuis is a maison of stories. La Placide tells several. Which ones?
Watchmaking remains a collective adventure, between the different specialized regions and particularly in Geneva, the epicenter of haute horlogerie. This context fully nourishes the story of this piece—featuring for the first time a “Léman blue” dial, and produced in 28 pieces. In 1996, Monsieur Roger Dubuis launched the Hommage collection to thank the teachers, colleagues, trainers and watchmakers who had accompanied him throughout his career.
A strong gesture, which recalls how much the bonds between watchmaking artisans matter in the trajectory of a watchmaker and a Maison.
Exactly. Relaunching Hommage for the 30 years seemed obvious to us. This edition is called La Placide in reference to Roger Dubuis’s scout totem—a nickname that suited him perfectly. I knew him personally: a calm, warm man, passionate about passing on haute horlogerie and happy to be surrounded by his watchmakers.
Caliber 1472 also illustrates a part of this story, as it brings together two flagship movements—the RD72 module and the restored RD14 caliber.
Indeed. La Placide carries the RD14, the first automatic manufacture caliber entirely produced at Roger Dubuis. It still bears the original engraving: “…this is my current watch, inspired but not bound by the past, projecting itself into a future that belongs to us.”
A message still true and reflective of our approach today. La Placide draws inspiration from the past but looks forward. It features a perpetual calendar the first for the Maison combined with a bi-retrograde display patented by Roger even before the creation of the brand, when he worked with Jean-Marc Widerrecht within the PME project (Placide, Marc, Esther for Catherine-Esther, Jean-Marc’s wife).
Its dial, built on multiple levels, also conveys the aesthetic that the Maison developed thereafter.
What challenges did the restoration of these vintage calibers represent?
The piece is certified with the Poinçon de Genève. They were therefore more than restored: we completely upgraded and reworked them, and reproduced parts when necessary. Each piece was a challenge, as these components are no longer manufactured. The Poinçon de Genève has also evolved: it did not include chronometry, which we, of course, integrated.
These movements benefit from 30 years of technical innovations. And we were able to retain the original balance spring, dating from 2003, when its production had been internalized in a confidential laboratory with very limited access.
Is there another anecdote you would like to highlight?
Yes, the bi-retrograde display. Roger liked to differentiate the indications of time, date, seconds, or moon phase. He also created an instantaneous perpetual calendar in line, the RD29, whose display jumped at midnight with day, date, and month perfectly aligned.
But for him, a window remained less expressive than these suspended retrograde hands, leaping with each jump. He loved the bi-retrograde, even the tri-retrograde. Fine, lively, singular watchmaking, marked by differentiated displays whether today associated at Roger Dubuis with the powerful aesthetics of mechanical sports or subtly referencing the great tradition.
