Carbon fibre, skeletonized movements… this brand doesn’t just make watches – it makes statements.

Mr Roger Dubuis launched himself into the watch industry in its golden age. Born just outside Montreux, in the village of Corbeyrier, in Switzerland’s Vaud district in 1938, he began his career at Longines in the late 1950s, a boom time for what were then invariably called “wrist watches”. WWII had spurred rapid expansion in the industry, creating a demand what we think of as archetypes but were then somewhat novel: pilot’s watches, chronographs, antimagnetic “tool” watches and dive watches. Plus, the popularisation of automatic winding in the early 1950s meant the public were buying watches in vast quantities by the time Mr Dubuis entered the game.

After nearly 40 years working for other watchmakers, the launch of Mr Dubuis’ own brand was timed to perfection. By 1995, the world was finally ready for his these avant-garde creations, known for their liberal use of carbon fibre and jagged skeletonized movements, not just in terms of the tastes of the times, but because the brand’s signature flourishes require entirely novel methods of production. Strategic product director Mr Gregory Bruttin explains: “From the very beginning, the idea was to use the mastery of high watchmaking to offer something very different. The way our watches are built is also very new in contemporary watchmaking: the layering of several flat surfaces, cut in a specific shape. It goes beyond the two-dimensional.”

But for all their strident modernity, it is clear that Roger Dubuis’ watches are enriched by much classical know-how. Mr Roger Dubuis himself spent nine years at Longines before moving to Patek Philippe, where he worked as a watchmaker in its “high complications” workshop – the birthplace of perpetual calendars, split-seconds chronographs and minute repeaters that these days command seven-figure sums at auction. He worked there for 14 years, honing his craft, and it was during this time that he developed the appreciation for Geneva’s traditional hand-finishing skills that would later see him pledge his own brand to the Poinçon de Genève seal of quality. A certificate of watchmaking excellence, it covers a watch’s levels of craftsmanship, reliability, accuracy and resilience, and are all strictly controlled and measured. To this day, every single Roger Dubuis watch is produced to meet these standards, whether it’s a Excalibur Aventador S special edition or a flying tourbillon.

One stipulation of the Poinçon de Genève is that the watches be made in Geneva and, while Roger Dubuis founded his brand there in 1990s, it wasn’t until 2001 that the brand completed construction of its own factory. Seventeen years on, the watchmaker is still ahead of the curve, a specialist in modern designs that put the technical nature of their construction front and centre. In this sense, they are a perfect partner for Lamborghini, among the world’s most expressive carmakers. Both share a fondness for sharp, angular styling underpinned by lightweight materials, and since 2016 Roger Dubuis has produced watches that celebrate the latest models from the Italian luxury sports car marque.

Every watch made under the Lamborghini partnership also has a calibre found nowhere else in the collection. The models available at MR PORTER touch on the brand’s automotive connections as well as including its core collection pieces – but one thing they all have in common is an approach to watchmaking unlike any other in the world.

The Excalibur is Roger Dubuis main family of men’s watches – immediately recognisable by its bezel, marked with 24 notches (as if from some mythical sword, perhaps). The design comes in a broad range of styles, from solid dials with outsized Roman numerals to the more typical skeletonised calibres, and has been produced in gold, titanium and carbon fibre. The calibre was the manufacturer’s first skeletonised automatic, and takes the principles of skeletonisation, removing all surplus metal from a movement until the bare bones remain, then polishing and bevelling them by hand. This allows a view of every single component (167 of them, if you’re counting) from the mainspring barrel (at the centre of the star) to the micro-rotor at 11 o’clock.

A total of 530 hours of construction goes into the movement, which has a power reserve of 60 hours. The Excalibur Automatic Skeleton is always sold on a strap rather than metal bracelet, either in brown alligator leather to complement the 18k pink gold case, or black rubber to match the titanium case.

Tourbillon watchmaking has been a huge part of Roger Dubuis’ portfolio since the manufacture first began, and the brand has become well known for taking this centuries-old idea in a modern direction.

Developed by one of the greatest watchmakers of all time, Mr Abraham-Louis Breguet, the tourbillon was originally an ingenious device for mitigating against the interference of gravity on a pocket watch’s accuracy (as it would spend most of its time in the same position, eventually gravity would distort the movement of the balance). These days, the tourbillon lives on as a means of demonstrating a watchmaker’s skill – produced to exacting standards, it is still a highly demanding task. As Mr Bruttin says: “The Poinçon de Genève is only certified by the experts. Once encased, no one can disassemble the watch, remove the dial and take the mechanism out to see how well it is finished. On a skeleton calibre, the owner can have a very close look anytime.”

Typically held in place by a bridge that secures the tourbillon from above and below, a “flying” tourbillon is one that relies solely on the lower fixing, giving the impression of operating unencumbered (and making it inherently harder to produce). Housed in the Excalibur case, the hand-wound skeleton movement showcases the tourbillon at seven o’clock.

Cars and have much in common with watches, and the best collaborations happen when both are coming from the same place: the classic Britishness of Bremont and Jaguar, for example, or the keen, technical focus of IWC Schaffhausen and Mercedes-AMG. So it is with Roger Dubuis and Lamborghini – the watch brand hasn’t had to deviate from its signature aesthetic one bit to produce watches that are the perfect foil for Sant’Agata’s loudest exports. As Mr Bruttin explains, working with Lamborghini allowed the brand to push its design boundaries further still. “The door was now wide open to go even deeper,” says Mr Bruttin. “Take a closer look at the bridges and you’ll see some of them diving from the upper surface of the calibre to the very interior of it, with an acute angle showing the depth of our skeleton creation. The Lamborghini partnership allowed us to straighten some of the lines, to use sharp edges, flat surfaces and add more facets into our bridges.”

Produced exclusively for MR PORTER, this unique piece celebrates the 730bhp Aventador S with a movement design that mirrors the car’s engine cover – complete with distinctive polished cross-bracing. The “engine” of the watch itself is as impressive as the Lamborghini’s V12 – it is the first to combine two balance wheels, running at a 90 degree angle to each other, with a central differential; the purpose of which is to achieve a better and more stable rate of timekeeping. It also looks sensational.

With the launch of the original Fusion in 1980, Hublot shook up the luxury watch world by putting high-end watches on rubber straps. Since then, this has become a ubiquity, especially where there is an evocation of motorsport to be had – a rubber strap with a tyre-print pattern is par for the course. What no-one else but Roger Dubuis offers, however, is a rubber strap that’s not just made from Pirelli tyre rubber, but rubber that has seen action on the racetrack – and hence comes with a texture and patina that is totally unique. The Excalibur Spider Pirelli limited editions are based on the Excalibur Automatic Skeleton, come in runs of 88 pieces, and all feature a colour scheme taken directly from the official colour coding that differentiates Pirelli’s various grades of tyre compound: red (“supersoft”), orange (“superhard”) and blue (“wet”). On each watch, the bezel inlay, rubberised crown (toothed for greater grip), tips of the hour and minute hands and dial details are all colour-matched to the relevant tyre.

Shop the Roger Dubuis collection here