Roger Dubuis is a legend in horology. The late master watchmaker is revered by industry insiders and collectors alike. In the case of the latter, his Hommage and Sympathie watches, created shortly after founding his eponymous company in 1995, are held in particularly high regard as paragons of classical watchmaking, with a dash of innovation and aesthetic daring.
It has thus long been a sticking point for these collectors that the modern brand of Roger Dubuis had distanced itself from these roots for a while. Dubuis retired from his company in 2003 (though he would later return in an ambassadorial role) and it would become part of the Richemont group in 2008; since then, it has carved out a niche for itself as ultra-exclusive, avant-garde hyperwatches. With a closer look, one could draw a thread back to the origins of Roger Dubuis: the commitment to high-end watchmaking, for instance, complete with Poinçon de Genève certification. But the original core approach and aesthetic fundamentals that are so highly valued by purist collectors were largely absent.
Until now, that is. It seems that, for the brand’s 30th anniversary, it is targeting these very collectors. Introducing the Roger Dubuis Hommage La Placide, a 28-piece limited edition that is highly unusual for the modern brand, but right in the wheelhouse of the man who first captured the watch world’s attention back in the late 1990s.
It is a round watch—only 38mm in diameter, if you can believe it—and rendered in fairly traditional fashion in pink gold, with not a single notch on the bezel. It sports a multilayered dial, packing a ton of information—the Roger Dubuis Hommage La Placide is a perpetual calendar, after all—on a blue lacquer backdrop. At 12 o’clock, month and leap year are told on a mother-of-pearl counter; the aventurine disc moonphase and its domed yellow gold moons sit at 6 o’clock. The signature retrograde displays of M Dubuis are at 3 and 9 o’clock, for date and day, respectively, and are executed in the bold, arcing typeface that is such a key part of his aesthetic.
Inside sits a mechanical homage to how far the brand has come. Calibre RD1472 consists of two segments. The Roger Dubuis Hommage La Placide’s base is the RD14 calibre that has been part of the maison since 2004, including the swan neck regulator and original Roger Dubuis balance springs that were produced in-house in the early 2000s and allowed the brand to call itself a true manufacture. The RD14 calibre is coupled with the RD72 perpetual calendar module that was first used in 1999. This is only the second time that this base and module are combined, and, for this release, includes a pink gold rotor and is certified to the strict standards of the Poinçon de Genève—a mark of aesthetic and performance that M Dubuis proudly pursued, and has become even more stringent today.
‘Placide’, by the way, was Dubuis’ nickname since his youth, an allusion to his calm and measured personality. Hommage La Placide is something that enthusiasts have been clamouring for, for a good while now—in some ways, it’s a mystery that it took so long to materialise. After all, vintage reissues are not uncommon in the industry. Understatement and classicism are in, these days, so it seems unlikely that this is going to be a one-off throwback and heralds a more concerted effort from Roger Dubuis to trace its own past.
