[Interview with the House of Watches] Roger Dubuis is one of the few Swiss mainstream brands that can combine traditional watchmaking techniques with cutting-edge design. Its creations are modern and cool enough to incorporate traditional craftsmanship with many of the finest watchmaking techniques, including the Poinçon de Genève. At the recent Watches & Wonders de Genève, Roger Dubuis continued its journey of discovery in Haute Horlogerie, unveiling several exceptional tourbillon watches, as well as a temple of watchmaking that showcases all the most emblematic tourbillon creations of the Maison to this day.
Also during the exhibition, the House of Watches was invited to visit the brand's watchmaking factory on the outskirts of Geneva, and I would like to share with you what I saw and heard during this visit.
The picture comes from the Internet
Roger Dubuis founded his eponymous label in 1995. Since its founding, the brand has been guided by the watchmaking philosophy of finding the perfect balance between watchmaking savoir-faire and avant-garde design.
Founded in 2001, the factory is a clever blend of traditional craftsmanship and cutting-edge watchmaking technology, in a building with a unique glass façade design, it retains the model of a traditional Genevan watchmaking workshop, but at the same time it is a high-tech modern factory with cutting-edge equipment, just like this year's Eye of the Sky new creation, modern on the one hand, traditional on the other, but without hindering it from being wonderful on both sides.
As soon as you enter the Roger Dubuis Manufacture, you can find many interesting details, such as the characteristic shell shape of Roger Dubuis at the entrance of the Manufacture, such as the pointed case of the Sympathie, which is printed on the floor tiles at the entrance, and the portrait of Monsieur Roger Dubuis at the entrance has a strong modern art style, and the partner Lamborghini is also everywhere.
At the beginning of the Manufacture visit, we were the first to come into contact with Roger Dubuis' cutting-edge and cutting-edge technology. Led by Roger Dubuis we take us to the brand's material storage room, where RD is made of the materials available. What we have always emphasized to our cousins is that Roger Dubuis is a master in the field of materials, which we can directly see from the current models on the brand's official website, there is only one conventional steel watch left, and the others are all innovative materials and precious metals.
The Excalibur Racing series is often made of the same C-SMC carbon fiber material as its partner Lamborghini, giving the watch a racing car the ultimate lightweight.
Roger Dubuis will always put the beauty of the material first, such as titanium, Roger Dubuis will choose a higher grade 5 titanium, and use a combination of brushing and polishing to enhance the texture of the watch, which has now become the mainstream material choice of RD. For example, the white MCF mineral composite fiber, an innovative material made of silica or quartz, is lighter than ceramic and carbon fiber cases, easy to wear, and the material is also very aesthetically pleasing, previously known as the whitest white case in the field of watches, and last year's Monovortex™ also presented its first red effect.
And Roger Dubuis for the application of innovative materials, does not stop at the case, such as Roger Dubuis will be difficult to process the fifth-grade titanium movement components, still in accordance with the Poinçon de Genève standards to polish, including the treatment of carbon fiber movements, RD is also one of the first brands to create skeleton carbon fiber movements, RD specially invited people from Poinçon de Genève to come to the factory to discuss how to improve the aesthetic value of innovative materials such as carbon fiber, which is still relatively cliché.
Staff display CCMTM cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy bar stock
For example, CCMTM cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy, as the same alloy material in high-precision fields such as aerospace and medical equipment, compared with stainless steel, Roger Dubuis emphasized its advantages, lightness, and excellent wear resistance and corrosion resistance. Today, Roger Dubuis combines it with titanium to create a tourbillon.
In the factory, Roger Dubuis also demonstrated how the components of watch movements can be processed with high-tech machines that are expensive. Like the bridges, gears, and shafting of the movement, all made by CNC machines, the image above also shows that the brass parts are machined to create a hollow shape and then peeled off from the brass base plate.
However, Roger Dubuis also deliberately explained that a movement part, such as gears, seems to be easy, and everyone may think that it should not be milled in the machine, but from the selection of bar stock to the turning and milling of the forming, it has to be carefully processed by craftsmen, which actually takes a month or even months.
The staff shows the CCMTM cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy gongs used in the magic sound three-way sound
It is worth mentioning that the Roger Dubuis Manufacture is one of the few watch factories that can complete independent research and development and production, that is to say, RD can produce any part of the watch by itself, which is often heard that they successfully achieved their own balance wheel and hairspring in 2003, so there are not many watch brands that can produce their own hairspring, but for confidentiality reasons, RD did not show us the production of hairspring.
As we went deeper, we got to know the most traditional side of Roger Dubuis, which to this day still makes its movements under the most stringent quality mark in watchmaking, the Poinçon de Genève certification. Nowadays, there is no more than one hand for a watch brand that can adhere to the Poinçon de Genève, after all, it takes a lot of time to test the craftsmanship and finally put the small emblem of "eagle and key" on the movement. Roger Dubuis watchmakers spend between 350 and 720 hours working to create a Poinçon de Genève movement, which is about 30 to 40 percent more man-hours than a regular movement, and only 24,000 of the 20 million timepieces produced in Switzerland each year are certified for this quality.
Comparison of movement parts before and after processing
Gear polishing table
Similarly, there are "highs and lows" in the Poinçon de Genève table. Compared with some high-volume and industrialized imprint watches, RD has more time to show the art of watchmaking in the minutiae because many models are not mass-produced, but mainly in limited editions, which are truly rare and only available to a few people.
The watchmakers polish the gear shafts with boxwood wheels
The watchmaker polishes the scale of the movement bridge
In accordance with the requirements that the edges of all steel parts of the Poinçon de Genève must be cut, polished and polished to make them as bright as a mirror, the watchmakers will process the parts one by one in the workshop, including a special watchmaker who will repeatedly check the hand-polished parts under a microscope until all the details are confirmed to be smooth and perfect, so that the parts can enter the next assembly process.
But if you want to say that the most attractive and enjoyable Poinçon de Genève production process must be the watchmaker's use of the most traditional figure 8 pure handmade mirror polishing and polishing process, which is also the most representative movement decoration process of RD.
Left: Before-and-after comparison of the tourbillon cage hand-finished
Right: The watchmaker inspects the tourbillon cage
In fact, according to the new Poinçon de Genève standard, which came into force in June 2012, the original 12 movement regulations have also been added to the rules for the assembly of watches, i.e. the contrast between the appearance and precision of the model has been added to the new regulations. In order to better balance the aesthetics of design with the intrinsic performance, RD reorganized its movement production line, and assembled the individual complications according to the assembly line, with the exception of the tourbillon watch, which is still produced by a dedicated watchmaker for one watch per person.
Why is the tourbillon so special? Why did Roger Dubuis fall so fond of tourbillons? In an interview last year with Gregory Bruttin, Roger Dubuis' current Director of Global Product Strategy, he already gave the answer, and in Roger Dubuis' view, there are three things that cannot be replaced by a tourbillon.
The first is the tourbillon as the cornerstone of RD's complications, that is, the theoretical basis, which can help them better understand the meaning of the watch itself and pursue precision.
The second is that Roger Dubuis believes that the tourbillon watch is the most imaginative product, leaving more design space than other complications, allowing the movement to accommodate more mechanisms and combine them with other complications.
The third point is that Roger Dubuis adheres to the watchmaking philosophy of "all craftsmanship is born for beauty", and the tourbillon can be designed to help RD further achieve a balance between skeleton and movement functionality, aesthetics and technology.
罗杰杜彼全球产品策略总监Gregory Bruttin
At this year's WWG Watch Exhibition, Roger Dubuis also took the theme of paying tribute to the tourbillon, bringing four latest tourbillon creations, and the Watch House also interviewed Gregory Bruttin again at the watch exhibition, chatting with him about the new works, and also made an in-depth discussion on the return to traditional style in the design of the movement, as well as the current fashion trends in the field of watches. Let him give us a brief introduction to the latest tourbillons.
Excalibur Single Flying Tourbillon titanium watch
Gregory Bruttin: It's important for us to highlight the evolution of the tourbillon this year, and you can see that our four new creations are all related to how Roger Dubuis sees the essence of the tourbillon's grand complication. Let's start with the Excalibur Single Flying Tourbillon Titanium, because with this new creation, I think we've created the modernity of a tourbillon. Its modernity comes not only from the overall design of the plate, but also from the choice of material, titanium. This innovative material was the perfect choice for Roger Dubuis because it offers a light fit, a very comfortable fit on the wrist, and a high level of resistance to corrosion.
The choice of materials for the movement is also very modern, our titanium is not only used in the case, but also in the movement, Roger Dubuis' iconic Celtic Cross tourbillon cage is made of titanium, combined with CCMTM cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy, which reduces the weight of the tourbillon cage and improves kinetic energy transmission.
In order to make titanium meet Roger Dubuis's aesthetic pursuit, we have also made great efforts to retouch the whole watch, alternating between matte brushed and polished finishes on the case, only for the physical effect can bring a strong visual contrast. So this new piece has inside and out, both in terms of material and performance, it is an extremely modern tourbillon watch, and the total weight of this watch is only 100 grams, we never want to say that Roger Dubuis watches, just in the safe collection, we want you to wear it every day, it obviously meets this need.
The third generation of the Knights of the Round Table Zodiac watch
罗杰杜彼Roger Dubuis第十代圆桌骑士
At the beginning of this year, Roger Dubuis created the new Excalibur Single Flying Tourbillon Dragon Year Chronograph, inspired by the Chinese zodiac dragon, which I think is a true dragon watch. Design is always the top priority of Roger Dubuis, so we start with the image of the dragon and the hollow design, if you know Roger Dubuis you will know that we have been trying to do some new explorations in the creativity of different cultures, for example, in the Knights of the Round Table series, we have two cultural works presented, the knight of the West and the zodiac of the East.
However, on the new dragon watch, we think it is important to add some stronger elements to the design, with Roger Dubuis familiar with the Chinese elements and continuous research, not only want to make the dragon watch like other brands very figurative, carved on the dial with a special traditional royal image of the dragon, although we are fully capable of doing it, but Roger Dubuis prefers to challenge himself and break through the boundaries, so he uses a dragon image with modern artistic beauty and the elegant style of traditional calligraphy to pay tribute to the Chinese Year of the Dragon. This is an exemplary work of Roger Dubuis that constantly tries to make new things in terms of aesthetics and creativity, and ultimately it can attract consumers who like traditional Chinese culture, as well as watch lovers who like modern cutting-edge watchmaking.
And this King Series Double Flying Tourbillon Rising Sun Oriental Watch, using the very popular rainbow circle in the watch market, in fact, all kinds of gemstones are gifts buried in the ground by nature, but we don't want to just make a very simple and conventional rainbow circle, because its sunrise theme is of great significance, we pay tribute to Mr. Roger Dolby in his early years, he needs to take a train for more than an hour every day across Geneva to go to school, he sees the sunrise beauty every day, just like his original intention for the watch industry, It remained in his heart many years later.
Therefore, when choosing gemstones, we have poured some creativity and artistry into the tone, like most brands on the market will choose all-natural sapphires to do rainbow circles, but you will find that if you want to present a red similar to the sun, the colored natural sapphire is translucent enough, but it is not so rich, which can not meet our design needs, so we chose garnet and orange spessartite, these semi-precious stones are mixed with natural sapphire, just to make this piece that entrusts us with emotional connection, It can restore the sunrise beauty through the true color of the gemstones.
Last but not least, and our most important piece of the year, is the new Excalibur Central Tourbillon Eye in the Sky. When Roger Dubuis introduced our brand, he said that it is important to follow tradition, but the first reaction of many people when they see the Eye of the Sky is that I believe that it is a very modern piece, and even that it is very futuristic, after all, its skeleton dial has a modern architectural visual aesthetic, and it is also very stylish and comfortable to use. But as you turn it over and admire it, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that it continues many of the delightful elements of the tradition, and we take inspiration from Monsieur Roger Dubuis' first in-house movement to create this traditional Haute Horlogerie movement in 19 different decorative techniques, demonstrating the interdependence of Roger Dubuis in modernity and tradition.
In fact, this year's new product is my personal favorite is this central tourbillon, Roger Dubuis has this special tourbillon design, from the Knights of the Round Table to the King series. However, in the past, when it came to the central tourbillon, it was often accompanied by a problem, which is why many watch brands could not popularize the central tourbillon, that is, the center of the movement was occupied by the tourbillon, so how to deal with the space of the hands? Including Roger Dubuis also designed a unique set of function selection buttons for the central tourbillon, what is its function? We also asked Gregory to answer this question for us.
Gregory Bruttin: In terms of the design of the concentric circles around the central tourbillon movement, the position of the crown is very important, because the crown determines the position of the winding system and the adjustment system of the movement layout, like the regular crown, the upper layer is the system that regulates the time, and the lower layer is the winding mechanism, which also determines how the hour and minute hands are arranged.
To this end, we made use of the space of the entire movement, and after doing different ideas between three-dimensional and flat, deep and shallow, we chose a kind of innovation that no other brand in the watchmaking industry can do, and the structure used for winding and setting the time was placed at the bottom of the movement, and at the same time, with the patented mechanism, that is, the function selection button, it is convenient to switch the winding and adjusting freely, which also frees up a lot of design space for the movement, and designs a double disc system next to the tourbillon cage, which is through ball bearings. It can drive the hour and minute hands to run.
However, you may compare it with the Knights of the Round Table central tourbillon, you will find that there are similarities between the two watches on the dial, indeed thanks to the success of the previous work, we do not need to make any breakthroughs in the Eye of the Firmament, but it still makes it a comprehensive upgrade, the movement of the Eye of the Sky is actually 90% to 95% of the movement layout and design is completely different, which has achieved the evolution of the central tourbillon.
The Excalibur Racing Revuelto flyback chronograph features the Poinçon de Genève engraved in the centre of the twin barrels
王者系列霓虹Spin-Stone™腕表
When it comes to Roger Dubuis, the watch house often talks to you about it, we all agree that what Roger Dubuis has been doing is to redefine the Poinçon de Genève, with some innovative designs that subvert and cool and integrate traditional watchmaking techniques, but as Gregory Bruttin said above, the new central rotor, the movement of the Eye of the Sky is polished and modified, it has become more inclined to the traditional style, and has regained the watchmaking style of Roger Dubuis himself, the feeling of the traditional Poinçon de Genève watch, We are also curious about what made Roger Dubuis make such a change?
Gregory Bruttin: Roger Dubuis has a great attachment to the Poinçon de Genève first and foremost, but we have probably spent a lot of time in the last few years trying to convey to you that Roger Dubuis has excellent contemporary design, or a modern new style, without putting too much effort into telling everyone that we are a top watchmaking brand.
As an intrinsic expression of the top watchmaking brands, the Poinçon de Genève is a testament to the high standards of watchmaking craftsmanship in the haute horlogerie industry, so that's why we wanted to make a difference with one piece, the Eye of the Sky. It retains the contemporary style of Roger Dubuis on the front, and the overall design of the movement on the back is also a tribute to the pocket watch design made by Monsieur Dubuis in the early days, through the independent bridges that can be seen through the movement, a large number of handmade sharp marks, as well as 19 different polishing processes such as pearl circular, Côtes de Genève and snailing patterns, to tell everyone that the Poinçon de Genève is the foundation of Roger Dubuis in the top watchmaking industry.
We also want to tell you what the Poinçon de Genève is in this new creation, which returns to tradition in terms of movement design. How did we spend so much effort and effort in our Geneva manufactory to polish a movement that is Poinçon de Genève? It also speaks directly through the work, with such a specially designed movement, this dazzling piece allows watch lovers to understand what kind of top-notch watchmaking craftsmanship Roger Dubuis has.
Left: Calibre RD08, Roger Dubuis' first minute repeater tourbillon movement, 2005
Right: Calibre RD06, Roger Dubuis' first chronograph tourbillon movement, 2007
Roger Dubuis' watchmaking prowess allows it to be used for almost all complications, such as minute repeaters, perpetual calendars, split-seconds chronographs, etc., but there is no doubt that Roger Dubuis prefers tourbillon functions. For the brand's founder, Roger Dubuis, the tourbillon is the holy grail of watchmaking and a complication that he has pursued since the creation of the brand. Today's Roger Dubuis tourbillons include single, double and central tourbillons, as well as a tapered single turbo tourbillon introduced last year, which also changes the way a conventional tourbillon operates.
Excalibur Double Flying Tourbillon
So what kind of tourbillon watch is currently making Roger Dubuis more challenging? Gregory Bruttin replied directly that with Roger Dubuis' current watchmaking prowess, the more challenging difficulty of the tourbillon watch is no longer the tourbillon itself.
The "Superwatch" series of magic sound trilogy
Gregory Bruttin: In fact, in our opinion, the creative design of the tourbillon can be divided into two aspects, the first is superposition, such as how to change the position of a single tourbillon, so that a single tourbillon becomes a double tourbillon, then for many brands, making a double tourbillon itself is a more difficult thing, can be regarded as a more challenging and breakthrough movement production, but we have been in 2003 Roger Dubuis developed the brand's first single flying tourbillon watch not long after, The double tourbillon has become an iconic design, so the single and double toon are more like our standard today, but Roger Dubuis is still trying to add other complications to the tourbillon.
The Superwatch Monovortex™ Tapered Single Turbo Tourbillon Split-seconds Chronograph
The other aspect is how to bring the tourbillon design that Roger Dubuis has not touched on into the brand, but this is only more groundbreaking, it does not mean that it makes us feel more challenging, it takes more time to learn new things, we need to do research and development and testing, we have to build everything from scratch, like the Monovortex tapered single turbine tourbillon you just mentioned, it is very groundbreaking, compared to the fact that it took us 3 to 4 years to develop the central tourbillon, and the single tourbillon was 360°It takes 7 to 8 years or more for the cone trajectory to rotate, and it has to be tested repeatedly to ensure its functionality and stability.
Near the end of the interview, we also asked Mr. Gregory Bruttin two questions about the fashion trend of watches, in the current watch market, the return to small watch diameter is also blowing a trend, such as 40, 41 mm diameter is the mainstream of the current watch size, 38, 36 mm new watches are also more and more, we often read the website cousin messages, that Roger Dubuis is still based on large watch size in size, I can't control it myself, I hope to have a more delicate and moderate size watch launched.
Gregory Bruttin: First of all, we don't necessarily expect it to become mainstream, and Roger Dubuis still thinks that we want to use a larger case size to present more high complications, or to have more space to accommodate more design ideas, and of course we are also considering different sizes, and we have also noticed the voice of the user, like you just mentioned 40 or 38, it is really suitable for different wrists or different customer needs. In the next three years, we will gradually have some works that are more inclined to delicate sizes, but we will not give up making some large-scale, visually expressive works to express the design we want.
In fact, Roger Dubuis still has its own insistence on watch design from beginning to end, and when I asked what he thinks about the future of watch fashion, Gregory also mentioned that Roger Dubuis does not want to follow the crowd, but wants to be a leader in watch fashion.
Gregory Bruttin: The return to Haute Horlogerie with this year's new arrivals is a trend in itself, and it is also Roger Dubuis' vision for the future of watchmaking. For many years we have been called the Master of the Skeleton and the Master of the Tourbillon, but in the past, Roger Dubuis was competing with other master watchmakers, and in the future, the whole of watchmaking will be reflected in the craftsmanship of Haute Horlogerie, and we have reason to continue to do so.
Because Roger Dubuis is unique in the world of Haute Horlogerie, we compete in an expressive way. As I said, Roger Dubuis doesn't want to be a mainstream brand, what we like to do is break the rules of watchmaking and bring something different to the world of watches, so now that we have returned to the traditional craftsmanship of watchmaking, we will slowly recreate the four complications that Roger Dubuis first mastered, and at the same time we will look for innovative breakthroughs in maintaining tradition, making them the most modern interpretations.
The conversation with Gregory Bruttin also gave us a closer look at this year's new works and the changes in Roger Dubuis' creative style. Previously, the watch house has also made detailed articles and video introductions to several tourbillon watches, if you are interested, you can search and watch.