A large, skeletonzied flying tourbillon in a proprietary metal. If I stopped my description there, you would probably say something like “Yeah, sure, honestly, that is what Roger Dubuis does. Those are the types of watches that have characterized the brand throughout the last few years. ” And you could be right. But I’m not stopping there. The Excalibur Diabolus In Machina takes that brand-defining formula and adds a minute repeater to the mix. I have your attention now, don’t I?
The actual Diabolus In Machina starts with a 45mm x 16. 8mm case made from a patented material called CarTech Micro-Melt BioDur CCMTM. It’s a metal that starts as a powder and is then sintered into solid form. Its biggest advantages over stainless steel are that it’s more wear resistant and that it will stay shiny even when scratched and scuffed. Roger Dubuis is the only watchmaker that has it. Here they’ve chosen it as the base for a watch which riffs on their usual design language in a few interesting ways. Typically, Roger Dubuis Excalibur tourbillons are all about open space. These are highly skeletonized, with more air than metallic or co2 between the two crystals. This watch, on the other hand, is all about thickness. You’ve got similar criss-crossed bridges, but they obscure one another and emphasize the movement underneath, instead of opening things up. But the real centerpiece here is the minute repeater, which has been quickly tuned (pardon the pun) for this specific watch. First off, there is a see-thorugh disc with the words hours, quarters, as well as minutes on it that spins as the repeater chimes out those various intervals, giving you a visual tip of what you’re hearing. It sits just behind the Both roman numeral at 11 o’clock, so you have to look closely to spot this. The repeater also plays off the watch’s name, using the gongs tuned to C and G flat, otherwise known as the tritone, or, as Roger Dubuis notes, the “Diabolus in Musica” in medieval times. It presumably gives the repeater a slightly ominous sound, and Would be really interested to hear it in person.
The Roger Dubuis Excalibur watch also has a nice safety feature in the form of a function indicator right next to the overhead. This tells you whether the watch is in gathering mode or even setting mode so that you do not accidentally change the time while the repeater is activated (which could cause major damage). There are also a mechanism in the repeater-activating push-button in 10 o’clock that prevents it from being partly triggered. It’s all or nothing here, saving you from another possible headache. If you’re a regular bestbuycheap. rivière reader, I probably have no to tell you that this view sits way outside my usual wheelhouse. Like, on the opposite side of the planet from it, if we’re being frank against each other. However , I can still appreciate this enjoy as an intellectual experiment and also an exercise in watchmaking along with design. Even if my hands could support something this size, We wouldn’t put on the Diabolus in Machina, but I would definitely be interested in checking this particular watch out in the metal. It is too wild for me not to want to see that.
Furthermore, I like that this see is a piece unique and not some random installment in a collection. It makes its experimental nature feel more genuine in addition to impressive. In the photos in this article, you can see just how tangled up the dial elements are, but I’m interested to see how the various colors plus finishes play off each other in shifting light. I am willing to bet that there are a lot more clarity here than you see at first glance. I’d also love to dig deeper into the mechanics from play. Things like the dual micro-rotors for winding, that will spinning repeater disc, and the finer engineering points here are clearly fascinating. Even if Roger Dubuis isn’t your bag aesthetically (and it’s certainly not mine), the actual watchmaking is actually exceptional and definitely worth paying attention to.