Roger dubuis excalibur tourbillon by BBR - Full review

[Dr Fun Socks 74]

 Roger dubuis - RDDBEX0393 aka the excalibur flying tourbillon. 

Inspired by (read made to feel incredibly lazy by) @glaude and @semperfi55 excellent reviews ive decided to go a bit deeper on one of my favourite watches. This is the watch that got me into reps (well the price and lack of 6 digits of disposable cash in my bank account did). Back then there were pretty much only dhgate quality reps of the excalibur style of watch. There was a seagull tourbillon version of the diver, but that is quintessentially very roger dubuis, a diver with a tourbillon... very cool but not the most practical of time pieces!

 

About the brand

The brand was only launched in 1995 by, and i’ll be shocked if you didn’t guess this, Roger Dubuis! Roger Dubuis was born in Corbeyrier, in the Swiss canton of Vaud, in 1938. He began his watchmaking career at Longines in the 1950s then moved to the high complications workshops at Patek Philippe, where he stayed for 14 years. In the 1980s, he set up his own watch and clock repair shop in Geneva.

 

In the late 1980s Mr. Dubuis was working with Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, the well-known movement designer, on the Bi-Retrograde Perpetual Calendar Watch commissioned by Harry Winston. “Roger and I shared a passion for beautiful horology,” Mr. Wiederrecht said. “He was ‘schooled’ at Patek Philippe at a time when so much of the work was still done by hand. He made some of the stunning Pateks that we see in auctions today.”

 

It was during that period that Mr. Dubuis met Carlos Dias, a businessman and watch designer. By 1995, he had convinced Mr. Dubuis to found the Société Genevoise des Montres, later renamed Manufacture Roger Dubuis.

Roger left the brand in 2005 and returned in late 2011. Sadly, Roger is no longer with us. He passed away in 2017. 

 

According to George Kern, president of the company “Roger Dubuis is the only manufacture in the world that is completely in-house from top to bottom, and marked with the Geneva seal. Because of this, the standard Dubuis movement costs around $5000, while many competitors' movements, he says, cost a fraction of this.”

 

Roger dubuis is now 100% owned by the richemont group. 

 

My experience with Roger dubuis

 

Here is the first excalibur (and rep i ever bought) i got it from gumtree. A very nice watch in its own right but most definitely not a real tourbillon. I kind of regret selling it because its a really nice watch, even the strap was decent!

 

 

Second i managed to get one with the skeletonisation i so desperately craved, again a nice watch for the money, but a big jump away from what i was hoping for. 

 

 

Finally just before last Christmas, not only one but two different factories brought out real working skeletonised roger dubuis excalibur models, the BBR featured here and the JB(F). There are slight differences between the two, the BBR is based on the 42mm version of the model and comes in at a svelte 10mm, whereas the JB is based on the older (<2013) 45mm model and is slightly thicker at 13mm.

 

BBR

2013> Gen (42mm case)

 

JBF

2012 Gen (45mm case)

 

To me the most obvious difference between the two models, besides size, is the cutout in the hands. The older larger model has one, where as the newer smaller one doesn’t. 

 

Unsurprisingly at less the 1% of the rrp of a gen, they both have their flaws. Most obviously on the BBR, two extra golden gears in the train in the middle around 9 oclock. On the JB, the layout of the dial is just a bit squiffy, hard to put into words but check out the pictures, all of the skeletonised parts are just fatter and oriented strangely. 

 

I guess it comes down to a preference of size and what your willing to live with as to which rep you choose. Credit where credit is due JB have made many new models after this and appear to be doing well. They have done a double tourbillon version for just over 3k and are about to release several versions of the spyder tourbillon in 45mm, seen below. 

Also soon to be released by bbr is a double tourbillon excalibur:

And a micro rotor tourbillon:

 

Enough talking, time for the actual watch review!

 

The watch

 

Id like to start by saying im not in any way a professional photographer. For this reason I don’t have a decent dslr, i dont have a decent light box (i got this for £6 on ebay especially for this review) and i dont have a huge amount of experience taking pictures of products. But ive tried my best! Heres a look at the setup used. 

£6 ebay light box

Big ass light thing my mrs had

Olloclip macro lens kit

£1 plastic watch stand

Iphone 8 with headphones for remote photo taking button

 

The sharp eyed among you may notice some of the pics of the gen are of a rose gold one. Not a lot a i can do about that its the same watch with a different case colour. Im just surprised i could find really good high res pics of the watch! You should be able to tell which is the gen but if you need help they say watches by sjx on them. 

 

Case

 

From the front i think the case is very good. It has the same amount of very similarly shaped cutouts on the bezel. All of the textures and finishes appear to be in the right places. Good effort from BBR!

On the back theres a slight difference in the case back size. The rep is a thicker width, therefore covering the area the RD logo reoccurring around the circumference on the gen is. Not a deal breaker, its the back of the watch after all and I’m sure theres a reason for it. 

 

Sizing is 42mm x 11mm, super wearable and very comfy. 

 

Dial

 

The dial (or lack of a dial) revolves around the 5 pointed star skeletonised theme. As you probably guessed by now, i love it! It has a lovely perlage finish over the framework. 

The keyless cover plate is slightly less refined, but you get what you pay for! Its not a cover on the gen, the rep has a plate to cover up the less sexy rep parts. The cote de geneve logo on the right is also a touch larger on the rep. 

Hard to see but the skeletonised framework on the rep has an extruded profile, think joined front to back, where as in places the gen has two separate plates not joined together. Google extrusion if you don’t get what i mean. 

The main flaw i picked up on is the poincon de geneve text around the tourbillon. Its present on the 45mm gen but not this smaller version. There is also 1 extra screw on the tourbillon cage on the gen where the hair spring joins. 

There is a serial number (or model number, not 100% on that) on the gen at around 10-11 oclock, not present on the rep. 

 

Overall, add a tasty little chamfer around the whole frame work and it would be as good as you could really hope for. The hands are great, true to the 42mm gen with the cutout, including a very eye catching half polished half brushed finish. Again im not sure that is true to gen, it could just be what can be seen from the 45mm gen pic way up, nonetheless it looks cool

 

Movement

 

I know most in depth reviews name exactly which movement is in the watch. I dont know. I have no idea how to find out. Its an asian tourbillon, thats all ive got for you sorry! 

As mentioned before, the keyless is different. 

There are also the two elephants in the room, namely two gold gears between 9 and 12. I believe these are the hour and minute wheels. Either you can live with it or you can pay £60,000 per wheel to remove them. 

Sorry about the recycled pictures but i can only work with what ive got! The winding mechanism on the rep is on top of the star shape, as opposed to inside it on the gen. id guess its due to it having larger diameter wheels than the gen but i could be wrong. Its the back of the watch, what can you do!

 

Strap and clasp

 

I’ve said it before and ill say it again, its the best rep leather I’ve ever had. Super soft, its a good length. Theres not a lot to fault. To the point i still haven’t replaced it a year later. I don’t have a pic of the gen clasp but i do have a zzf knights of the round table. As you can see the bbr has a much slimmer profile and slides under the cuff well. The deployant actually stays closed too which is great. 

 

Overall

 

Just buy it. Support the industy and maniacs like myself and @dadog13 who obsess over roger dubuis. Without people buying them, they wouldn’t keep bringing out new models and pushing the rep boundaries. 

 

Honourable mentions to @semperfi55 and @Glaude for making me step up my review game, and to @dadog13 for making up the other half of the roger dubuis fan club and bringing us news and pics of new releases long before the td’s do.

[deju 1,862]

Thanks for sharing, the RD reps are amazing I had the non tourb version of your first rep with a rubber strap and it was stunning on the wrist! I also marvel at the round table rep. 
 

while I couldn’t pull off a tourb or a skeleton watch to save myself I can’t help but love looking at the little details in your pictures. 
 

completely agree everyone should buy one to try them out! 

[Dr Fun Socks 74]

1 minute ago, deju said:

Thanks for sharing, the RD reps are amazing I had the non tourb version of your first rep with a rubber strap and it was stunning on the wrist! I also marvel at the round table rep. 
 

while I couldn’t pull off a tourb or a skeleton watch to save myself I can’t help but love looking at the little details in your pictures. 
 

completely agree everyone should buy one to try them out! 

2020 appears to be the best time to be into roger dubuis, the choices are growing like never before. The round table is a great watch, although they are repping the new weird pink and blue gem stone dial variations that im not super keen on. Even the gens look shit. But the black dial is amazing in real life in gen, and still not bad as a rep.

I wanted to get the pics as close to the gen pics i sourced as possible, seemed like a great idea until i tried taking them! After a week of trial, much error and a lot of improvements im pretty happy with the results

[Glaude 1,615]

Again, thanks for this nice review and the time you took to make it !

[Dr Fun Socks 74]

12 minutes ago, Glaude said:

Again, thanks for this nice review and the time you took to make it !

All good mate. English was never my strong point at school, I’m a maths/physics/engineering kind of guy. But it is fun writing about something you are passionate about

[semperfi55 4,707]

Read it at RWI first.

You have a good photo layout here. I don’t think I have  ever sit down and compare wheels and extrusions in detail for 30 mins straight.

Roger Dubuis watches are not really thing due to size, but I got to admit the level of detail and the technical feats are impressive. 

Do I sense the double Tourbillon coming soon

 

Superb review, thanks for introducing me to a new brand!

[FunnyStarSystem 7,537]

Review par excellence! Not a fan of the RD brand, but it is amazing the lengths taken to replicate in such detail. It would be very interesting to interview some of these rep craftsmen about their process, but I have a feeling they are not interested in sharing their secrets.

Clever set-up as well, your photos are almost too revealing. Bravo.

 

 

[Dr Fun Socks 74]

9 hours ago, funnystarsystem said:

Review par excellence! Not a fan of the RD brand, but it is amazing the lengths taken to replicate in such detail. It would be very interesting to interview some of these rep craftsmen about their process, but I have a feeling they are not interested in sharing their secrets.

Clever set-up as well, your photos are almost too revealing. Bravo.

 

 

They really have gone to town to make it a great rep. I guess the previous reps weren’t even close and they saw market potential. Apparently they sell very well in china due to the flashy looks. Would be great to see where they even start with producing something like this. Thanks for the kind words, thank sjx for inspiring the angles haha!