Roger Dubuis is known for its avant-garde approach to watchmaking, combining unexpected and innovative materials with progressive complication technology to create powerful timepieces. The Excalibur Quatuor perfectly encapsulates the brand’s approach to the use of new materials and innovative movement design. The Excalibur Quatuor was launched in 2013 at the end of seven years’ in-house research and development aimed at overcoming gravity’s adverse effect on a mechanical watch movement. The tourbillon is one solution that has been around for many years, but Roger Dubuis wanted to find another. The result was the Quatuor with its four sprung balances.
In terms of materials, the Excalibur Quatuor is equally forward-looking, featuring two particularly innovative models. Alongside the titanium and rose gold versions, the Excalibur Quatuor also comes with a silicon case – a first for the watch world – which is far lighter than gold, in grey with a black dial. Another limited edition launched in 2017, the Excalibur Quatuor Cobalt MicroMelt® is made of cobalt-chrome, a high-performance alloy produced using exclusive MicroMelt® technology more generally found in aviation and astronomy. With its blue PVD-coated dial, this is the brightest and most colourful model in the collection.
Red and black
At the other end of the spectrum, this autumn Roger Dubuis is introducing a new, more sombre version of the Quatuor. The Excalibur Quatuor Carbon comes in the same 48 mm case as the rest of the collection, this time machined from a multi-layered carbon that reduces the weight of this imposing timepiece considerably without diminishing its macho presence. Red accents on the tips of the hour and minute hands, and on the hour markers, lift the dark mood of the watch while heightening its masculine design. The black Barenia calf leather strap also features red topstitching.
The watch’s design draws part of its power and modernity from the dial architecture, which is dominated by the four sprung balances. These four balances work in pairs connected by differentials, instantaneously compensating for any effects that changes in the watch’s position on the wrist, or gravity, might have on the balance, and hence on the watch’s accuracy. Each balance beats at 4 Hz, combining to make a total frequency of 115,000 vph, a speed that enables the Quatuor to achieve in an instant what would take a tourbillon a full minute. This feat of engineering is driven by the hand-wound RD101 movement, which was designed and developed entirely in-house. It governs the hour and minute functions, and has an autonomy of 40 hours before needing to be rewound.
The Excalibur Quatuor Carbon special edition of just eight pieces, certified with the Geneva Hallmark, is priced at CHF 426,000.
