A Closer Look at the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Twofold Watch

Last week, avant-garde watchmaker Roger Dubuis unveiled the Excalibur Twofold, a new, limited-edition timepiece that embodies the brand’s technical prowess and design acumen. Featuring three world premieres — a bezel and case crafted of Mineral Composite Fiber (MCF), patented luminescent paint on the RD01SQ movement and strips of LumiSuperBiwiNova on its strap — the watch is a high-visibility take on Roger Dubuis’ skeleton double flying tourbillon. A feat of craftsmanship and engineering, it gives new meaning to glow in the dark while maintaining the brand’s signature attention to bold details.

HYPEBEAST sat down with Roger Dubuis product strategy director, Gregory Bruttin, to discuss the artistic approach used in creating the timepiece, the nuances of its technical achievements and how the watch is pushing the boundaries of materiality, aesthetics and technical innovation.

From a technical level, what makes this watch so impressive?

We had to work for several years to develop the whitest possible composite materials. But, in reality, what makes this watch so impressive is the contrast between night and day vision. We expect white to be visible at night, but it is a completely opposite effect that occurs at night: the codes of our tourbillon that have been deliberately hidden by day are highlighted at night.

What makes this particular material so special? How does this timepiece play into Roger Dubuis’ history of material innovation?

Until today, the only solution to have a white product was to work with ceramics, which has many disadvantages, such as the weight. We preferred to target an ideal material for us rather than something that existed on the market. The carbon gives us design freedom and makes the watch very light, hence comfortable. This material will allow us to be able to create even more unique and surprising designs, especially because white is an absence of color.

What elements do you think speak best to Roger Dubuis’ “excess of design” ethos? What are some of your personal favorite design elements?

We had a complex artistic approach in order to maintain a harmonious dichotomy between day and night vision. The most important thing when making a watch is to have a global consistency in our approach. For this product, it had to be double (day and night). For example, on night vision, if we had not integrated the luminescence logic in the bracelet, it would have given an unfinished feeling. Same as day, if the movement was not white. A lot of technology had to be developed specifically to achieve this consistency, which for me, is what I prefer about this watch.

How does this timepiece show off the double flying tourbillon?

The double flying tourbillon is an iconic piece of the brand, with a perfectly recognizable design with which we could play at night. The size of the 45 mm case also allows to highlight this new material.

Where does the name “Twofold” come from?

“Twofold” comes from the duality of the timepiece, directly related to the duality of the brand. The duality of the timepiece is clearly the difference between the day vision and the night vision. As for the brand, if you forget about the fact that we are manufacturing Haute Horlogerie timepieces, one would never imagine that our foundations are linked with a secular and traditional heritage. Think about the Haute Horlogerie landscape — you will have a hard time finding a brand that is as excessive and contemporary as Roger Dubuis.

The Roger Dubuis Excalibur Twofold Watch is limited to 8 pieces. To learn more about the timepiece, which is available now, head to the brand’s website.