Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Huracàn DBEX0972
The Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Huracàn DBEX0972 unites the worlds of two luxury marques both of which have a reputation for making supremely luxurious products, brimming with decadence and excess. Mark McArthur Christie shares his thoughts on this watch from the brand synonymous with ‘Hyper Horology’.
Partnerships between watchmakers and other firms can be tricky. No two businesses are ever really the same – there’ll be different cultures, different approaches to problems, different management teams. So it’s always a case of finding the best – rather than the perfect – fit. But it’s pretty hard to think of a better match than the relationship between Roger Dubuis and Lamborghini. After all, both firms are renowned for their understated, restrained and subtle approach to the things they make. Ha – only kidding; both Dubuis and Lamborghini are absolute headbangers – but in the very best possible sense of building remarkable products that are as much about appealing to your heart as your head. Sure; there are far simpler ways of nipping to the shops for a pint of semi-skimmed than ragging there sideways in your Huracán, just as there are simpler ways of telling the time than checking your Excalibur Spider. But they won’t be anything like as much fun.
I’ll leave you to look up the details of the Huracàn at your local Lamborghini shop – I’m here for the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Huracàn DBEX0972. Roger Dubuis does something remarkable; the firm builds watches that are on the barking end of crazy, but, at the same time, each design and mechanical feature involves properly nailed-on engineering and watchmaking cleverness.
Take the Spider’s case. It’s made from SMC carbon fibre – SMC stands for ‘sheet moulding compound’. This is the stuff you use if you want to make a racing car suspension strut that’s exceptionally strong but seriously light. For example, you could do what most people do and make your strut from fabricated lightweight steel tube, but that would weigh in at around 9kg. An equivalent SMC carbon component would come in at just over 3.5kg. It’s the same material Lamborghini used on their 2010 Paris Motorshow Sesto Elemento concept car. It’s ideal for high-performance car components that need to take the strain from being the base for a lot of fasteners, which also makes it pretty ideal stuff for watch cases, if you like your watch case insanely over-engineered, that is.
Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Huracàn DBEX0972 is 45mm in diameter, just over 14mm thick and faced with an anti-reflective sapphire crystal. The bezel, rather than being SMC carbon, is DLC titanium – light and strong again. The exhibition caseback allows you to take a proper look at the movement, but more of that later. The crown follows suit and seems to be designed to resemble the wheel centre lock nuts on the Huracàn. The whole thing is water-resistant to 50m.
The watch case uses an unusual but very secure three lugs per strap half – the traditional two outer lugs (both cut away) plus a central lug. The system is almost like having an integrated strap. You shouldn’t have any problems keeping your watch and strap securely together even if the lack of weight means you’ll barely know it’s there.
That strap itself is quite something, too. Leather, schmeather; this is nothing less than rubber with an Alcantara inlay and it’s just as much of an experience as the rest of the watch. And on the strap lining, Roger Dubuis has called on another racing partner; this time, Pirelli. They’ve provided the P Zero Trofeo R pattern with which it is cut. The clasp is triple-folding and cast in Black DLC titanium (there’s a theme emerging here) with titanium blades.
What about telling the time, though? The Excalibur Spider doesn’t really have a dial in the conventional sense. Hardly surprising as not much else about the watch is conventional. Instead, there are more Sant Agata design cues than you could shake a carbon-fibre stick at. Who needs five minute markers when you could have recessed Allen bolt heads filled with Super Luminova? What about those dial-wide scoops between eight and nine and three and four? Take a look at the intakes on the front of the Huracàn and you’ll see something rather similar. The X-bracing that sits just under the cannon pinion? Look just above the 5.2-litre V10 engine in the Huracàn and there it is. The orange highlighting is straight out of the paint shop at Lamborghini – as is the camo green. Yet, despite all this, you can tell the time at a glance thanks to the orange-tipped hands – the date at 6 is a little more of a challenge, mind.
And then there’s the engine. Sorry – ‘movement’. This is the in-house automatic RD630 calibre shared with Roger Dubuis’ other Lamborghini watches. Fittingly, it’s as over the top as the rest of the plot with a 12-degree angled balance and a 360-degree oscillating weight that, perhaps not strangely, resembles a wheel from a Huracàn STO. Where the STO kicks out a Pirelli-shredding 470 kW of power at 8,000rpm, the Excalibur Spider turns in 28,800 Vph with a 60 hour power reserve (double barrels help here). And it’s not all engineering cleverness, it’s a visually striking movement too with its shot-blasted and NAC coated main plate and bridges.
As we said earlier, no one buys a Huracán to nip to the shops for a pint of semi-skimmed just as no one buys a Roger Dubuis because they want to know the time. But what an utterly glorious way to do either!
Further reading
Technical specifications
- Model: Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Huracàn DBEX0972
- Case: SMC carbon; diameter 45 mm; height 14.1mm; water resistance 5ATM (50m); sapphire crystal to the front and exhibition case back.
- Functions: Hours; minutes; central sweep seconds; date
- Movement: Calibre RD630; self-winding movement; frequency 28,800 vph (4Hz); 29 jewels; power reserve 60 hours.
- Strap: Rubber with Alcantara® inlay. Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R pattern on the lining of the strap. Interchangeable with Quick Release System – QRS. Black DLC titanium cover with titanium blades, triple folding, interchangeable with Quick Release System – QRS
- Price: £52,000 (RRP as at 26.12.2021)