Roger Dubuis introduced Dawn and Twilight, two enchanting new watches in its Excalibur collection, at the Watches and Wonders show in Geneva.
Roger Dubuis is continuing to draw design inspiration from the British legend of King Arthur in its Excalibur collection. Mr. Roger Dubuis, the brand’s late founder, first introduced Excalibur in 2005. He was most likely inspired by a medieval sword given to his business partner, according to the brand. “Legend says that a customer once presented Carlos Dias with a real middle-ages sword, suggesting that he and Roger were the fearless and chivalric knights of watchmaking. This moment almost certainly inspired the name of the new collection.”
The new timepieces offer an interpretation of the Brocéliande forest that Arthur and his knights frequently rode through. In the Arthurian legend, the fairy Viviane lives in Brocéliande, and Merlin the magician often takes refuge there.
A New Dawn
The two new watches evoke the colors of the forest at dawn and twilight. They “have brought this enchanting place to life at the most striking moments of the day,” according to the brand, “when the forest takes on shimmering hues in response to the changing light.”
The Dawn version “evokes the forest as it awakens to the colors of the morning,” with yellow, red and pink tones. The Twilight timepiece, meanwhile, “captures the shades of dusk on a starry night.” Both watches feature an intricate ivy vine motif in gold with engraved mother-of-pearl leaves. The Dawn version’s leaves are varnished red, pink and yellow, while the Twillight’s mother-of-pearl leaves are hand-polished to reveal their natural white iridescence.
Nightfall in Brocéliande
Each watch features two decorative rotating sapphire discs decorated with smaller vines that move with the wearer, evoking a gentle wind. The Dusk timepiece has a blue varnished, translucent sapphire crystal dial, adding to the natural color of that time of day. Both watches have 18-k rose gold cases and feature the brand’s signature three lugs. The watches’ red and blue straps are interchangeable.
An all-new in-house automatic skeletonized movement, the RD721SQ, was created specifically for the new watches. It is Geneva Seal certified and decorated with ivy leaves. The movement provides 72 hours of power reserve when fully wound, and has 169 components and 32 jewels.