Intro
Roger Dubuis keeps developing new calibres and rediscovering their traditional haute-horlogerie pedigree. In 2025, the brand raised the bar with the Excalibur Grande Complication, combining a flying tourbillon, a perpetual calendar and a minute repeater to celebrate the brand’s thirtieth anniversary. This Grande Complication is the second execution in the brand’s history after the first-ever in-house model was introduced in 2009.
The RD118 calibre
The new RD 118 calibre is housed in the massive 45 mm diameter, large, and 17.45 mm thick rose gold Excalibur case. The twin micro-rotor self-winding movement’s displays and complications prove a classic yet distinctive approach to haute horlogerie in the perfect Roger Dubuis style.
Double retrograde displays for the day of the week and the year stand out on the dial. They showcase asymmetric scales to improve readability at a glance and are very bold. The months’ disk opens at twelve, with the leap year display on the right-hand side instead.
At the bottom is a titanium flying tourbillon bearing the unmistakable Celtic cross. The perpetual calendar is, as often seen, programmed until the year 2100. A multi-layer dial highlights the calibre’s intricate design and helps quickly identify the single displays and complications, the most attractive of which is the Minute Repeater.
The Tritone chime
Roger Dubuis went all in for its minute repeater complication with a so-called tritone-type chime you can trigger via a large button on the case’s left side. The wearer must press it to its full extension to activate it since it was engineered to avoid any unwanted activation under everyday use. Known as the devil’s chime or “Diabolus in music” in Latin, its sound pays homage to the Middle Ages and chimes a low tone for the hours, a high tone for the minutes, and two tones for the quarters.
From a technical perspective, the RD118 calibre has 684 parts. Its balance wheel oscillates at 3 Hertz, ensuring a 60-hour power reserve when fully wound. Each component is individually hand-finished (21 different finishes) to meet the standards required to award the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Grande Complication the Geneva Seal, as with the entire Roger Dubuis production. The brand confirms they’ll build eight pieces, available exclusively at their boutiques.
(Photo credit: Roger Dubuis)
Giovanni Maria Di Biase @Horbiter®
