Roger Dubuis Excalibur Grande Complication: Time in its Most Extreme Form
<img width="2100" height="1400" src="https://ostermanwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Roger-Dubuis-Excalibur-Grande-Complication-RDDBEX1174-1.webp"
At Roger Dubuis, every watch is a statement. A statement of audacity, excess, and disruption. Here, haute horlogerie does not seek discretion. It asserts itself. It vibrates. It dares. And in this new Excalibur Grande Complication, unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2025, the Geneva-based manufacture has created what is undoubtedly one of its most spectacular pieces to date.
At first glance, the watch strikes you with its openworked, taut, almost organic construction, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of time. Taking center stage are two flying tourbillons inclined at 90°, suspended in mid-air like two hearts beating in unison. This mechanical ballet is far from superficial: it compensates for the effects of gravity across multiple axes, ensuring rare chronometric stability.
This differential double tourbillon system is powered by the calibre RD114, a movement entirely designed, developed, and assembled within
the Roger Dubuis manufacture in Geneva. It beats at a frequency of 5 Hz, or 36,000 vibrations per hour, well beyond the industry standard. This allows for a more precise and fluid reading of time, particularly for the seconds.
But Roger Dubuis does not stop there. On this openworked dial, two complications join the tourbillon: retrograde day and date displays, located at 11 and 1 o'clock respectively. Their hands sweep across semi-circular arcs before snapping back to their starting points with a sharp, rapid jump, offering a doubly theatrical horological spectacle.
This retrograde system requires meticulous energy management and synchronization. Return springs, profiled cams, and surgical adjustment work ensure that the jump is clean, precise, and durable, even after hundreds of thousands of cycles.
The 45 mm 18-karat pink gold case embodies the raw power of this piece. Yet it remains finely crafted, with alternating polished and satin-brushed surfaces, openworked lugs, and a fluted bezel. Everything is designed to highlight the taut lines of the skeletonized movement. The result is a watch that asserts itself with both brutality and refinement, a perfectly embraced paradox.
The black leather strap with a folding clasp fits the wrist perfectly, despite the imposing size of the watch. Every detail, down to the securing screw, has been designed to combine robustness, performance, and comfort.
Like all high-complication creations from Roger Dubuis, this Excalibur Grande Complication is certified with the Poinçon de Genève. This
seal, one of the most prestigious in watchmaking, guarantees that every single component is finished by hand, including those that will never be seen. It also imposes some of the industry's strictest criteria for operation, precision, and assembly.
The Excalibur Grande Complication is not a timepiece you wear just to tell the time. It is a manifesto. A mechanical work of art that bears witness to an obsession with complexity, extreme aesthetics, and uncompromising performance. It is a watch conceived as a moving work of art, but built like a machine of war.
It does not seek modesty. It is not for everyone.
But for those who want to see everything, hear everything, and feel everything.
Roger Dubuis has created one of its most accomplished contemporary masterpieces here.
If you enjoyed this article, you can also discover our piece on another new model from Vacheron Constantin, currently the most complicated wristwatch in the world.
Osterman Watch
Strategic expertise for discerning watch brands
We support watch brands in their digital development, visibility, and international reach.
Content strategy, brand positioning, editorial consulting, high-end format production, and targeted communication.
An independent, specialized team at the service of your uniqueness.
We understand the codes of watchmaking, the expectations of collectors, and market dynamics.