As it turns 30, Roger Dubuis returns to its roots and proves why it leads the pack — CEO David Chaumet on heritage and innovation
Echoes of the late Roger Dubuis loomed large at the brand’s Watches & Wonders booth this year. Where just a year ago, the space was decorated to look like a portal of sorts into the future—awash in flashes of red and silver, with robotic dogs prancing about—the ambience was markedly different for 2025. Instead, guests basked in vantage-point views of Roger Dubuis’ watchmaking facility in Geneva that covered the walls, and perused treasured watches, such as Mr Dubuis’ Sympathie Bi-Retrograde Perpetual Calendar Moonphase that he wore until his final days.
Yet, to David Chaumet, CEO of Roger Dubuis, both expressions of the company—the hyper- modernistic projections of 2024 and this year’s stately evocation of roots-reckoning horology— inhabit the same universe. “It is a unique place that we occupy for sure,” he says. “We have such a huge territory in which we can express ourselves and I see it as a good thing.”
For a brand that is barely three decades old, Roger Dubuis exudes the confidence— and contradictions—of a much older house. At 30, the brand is an infant in watchmaking terms. Yet, Roger Dubuis’ achievements are startling. Constantly pushing the boundaries of luxury horology, the company punches way above its weight in manufacturing prowess and technical savoir-faire.
For instance, it is one of the rare Swiss watch brands to have all its watches bear the prestigious Geneva Seal quality certification. For context, only approximately 0.008 per cent of the 30 million watches produced annually in Switzerland bear the Geneva Seal. Exceptionally prolific when it comes to in-house production, the brand has conceived and developed over 40 in-house movements since its inception—an astounding number for a young watchmaking house.
“This feels like a brand with more history than the 30 years that we are actually at,” says Chaumet. “In a few short years, we have undergone several stages of evolution, from establishing our legitimacy in the early days to being bold and expressive with our complication watches. Now, just three decades on, we hope to cement our place as an icon in contemporary watchmaking.”
Three decades, two watches
With a focus “entirely on the Roger Dubuis DNA”, Chaumet explains that the brand’s two novelties of the year have been designed to encapsulate its co-founder’s most significant technical innovations and articulate his progressive watchmaking philosophy. “The idea was to reimagine and modernise some of the early complications that were close to his heart,” says Chaumet.
On the new Excalibur Grande Complication, which is limited to just eight pieces, the brand reprises a trio of haute horlogerie’s most coveted acts: a flying tourbillon, a minute repeater, and a bi-retrograde perpetual calendar. While Roger Dubuis has demonstrated a mastery of these complications—specifically in 2009 with its first version featuring the same trio of complications— the Excalibur Grande Complication feels like a statement-making piece that reminds collectors what they love about the brand.
While the flying tourbillon and minute repeater that sounds the time with a haunting tritone chime showcase Roger Dubuis’ unabashed technical flamboyance, the perpetual calendar with bi- retrograde display is particularly poignant. Distinguished by hands that fan across two retrograde arcs that snap back like a magician’s sleight of hand, the bi-retrograde ranks among the co-founder’s favourite inventions. “Mr Dubuis co-patented the retrograde complication with watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht in 1989. As such, it was important to us to bring this invention to the fore again as we mark the brand’s 30th anniversary,” says Chaumet.
The mechanism is celebrated even more unabashedly in the Excalibur Biretrograde Calendar. A timepiece that again demonstrates Roger Dubuis’ penchant for horological nostalgia and quiet rebellion, the 40mm pink gold watch is anchored by distinctive arches for the retrograde day and date displays.
Elsewhere, the use of mother-of-pearl on the dial harks back to the early Sympathie models that heavily featured the iridescent material, while the open caseback is encircled by an engraved credo: “C’est une montre actuelle, inspiree mais pas soumise au passe, qui se projette dans un futur qui nous appartient.” (“This is a watch of today, inspired but not restricted to the past, projected into a future that belongs to us.”)
“The saying used to be on our earlier models and I thought it would be nice to have it back on the pieces for the anniversary,” says Chaumet. “In a very short time, Roger Dubuis has grown so much and this year we want to express who we are with a sense of philosophical purity, with watches that would make Mr Dubuis proud.”
This story first appeared in the August 2025 issue. Purchase it as a print or digital copy, or consider subscribing to us here
