Roger Dubuis’s Excalibur Quatuor is the first watch with a case that is entirely produced from silicon. The watch caused a sensation when it was unveiled at this year’s Salon International de La Haute Horlogerie. The avant-garde Geneva-based brand devoted five years of research and development to battle the effects of gravity in order to produce the timepiece’s balance assembly. The lavish timepiece includes 590 parts, five differentials, a 40-hour power reserve and the world’s first watch movement with four sprung balances. Positioned at a 90 degree angles to one another, linked by differentials, each balance operates at 4Hz, adding up to 16 oscillations per second. It offers a new instant solution to the rate variation, something that a tourbillon achieves during the course of a minute.
Gregory Bruttin is now responsible for movement development at Roger Dubuis but both he and the founder represent two generations of master watchmakers who have devoted themselves to pushing the limits of their craft. When many other brands would just create a one-off version of a watch like the Excalibur Quatuor to demonstrate their watchmaking skills, Roger Dubuis has made its new masterpiece available to the market for those who are true watch lovers – and can afford the US$1 million price tag.
