Haute Horlogerie brand Roger Dubuis reveals the philosophy behind its latest streak of motorsports partnerships

When the teaser for Roger Dubuis’ big announcement for this year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) came out, it was a tyre in the middle of the screen and the brilliant sound of a revving engine. We all know how fantastic cars and exquisite watches pair together and, so, I was convinced that this was going to be a car partnership. But, as it turned out, the big reveal was actually a partnership with the performance tyre manufacturer, Pirelli. At first, I thought it was a somewhat unorthodox pairing but, speaking with Olivier Gudin, Managing Director of Roger Dubuis for South-East Asia and Asia Pacific, I started to see how this collaboration made perfect sense.

The partnership with Pirelli saw the official launch of two watches for Roger Dubuis: an Excalibur Spider Pirelli – Automatic Skeleton and a highly coveted Excalibur Spider Pirelli – Double Flying Tourbillon. What’s unique about these watches are that the straps were made from the actual tyres that won the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix. Instead of just doing tyre thread prints that most other manufacturers seem to favour, Roger Dubuis took the rubber from the Formula 1 car tyre and managed to figure out a process to mould it into straps and stabilise it. Gudin continues: “This is in-line with the brand’s ideology of using disruptive materials as this particular form of rubber has never been used before for watches.”

Why choose to hero the tyres rather than the actual cars themselves? “We have come to realise that a lot of people who are interested in supercars, extreme cars and racing cars are interested in our designs and watches as well,” Gudin says. “Pirelli is our gateway into the motorsports universe and this gives us a way to craft a unique experience for our customers.” With Pirelli being the official and only supplier of Formula One tyres, it is able to give selected super VIP customers of Roger Dubuis, full access to the F1 races. And if you managed to get your hands on one of the eight Excalibur Spider Pirelli – Double Flying Tourbillon, you’ll also get a “high adrenaline experience: a two-day VIP programme organised by Pirelli.”

Funnily enough, the idea to create this unique customer experience came from Jean-Marc Pontroué, CEO of Roger Dubuis, after he observed Nespresso. In an interview with Watch-Insider, he pointed out that when you buy Nespresso capsules in the store, you get the extra experience of tasting its limited-edition coffees and enjoy all this storytelling surrounding the brand. And in order to adapt that for Roger Dubuis, the experience had to scale accordingly. Gudin explains further: “Today, most of these guys (customers of Roger Dubuis) have seen it all, so we have to surprise them; we have to give them exclusive access to places that are usually not open to the public.”

Another good example of this would be Roger Dubuis’ partnership with ‘The Run To’. This is a rally that sees a small selection of enthusiasts drive their supercars from a set location (Bordeaux this year) to Monaco just in time for the Monaco Grand Prix. “Throughout the journey, they stop by beautiful places, small villages and prestigious chateaus, most of which are not available to the public. It’s an event focused on fabricating a bond with people who enjoy supercars and watches.”

With its move into motorsports, Roger Dubuis has promised three big partnership announcements within 2017, with Pirelli being the first. Just a couple of months ago, the brand unveiled a partnership with Italdesign, just in time for the latter’s launch of the Italdesign Automobili Speciali at the Geneva Motor Show. This newly launched brand is focused on ultra-limited series cars and makes the perfect companion for the Excalibur Spider Italdesign Edition from Roger Dubuis that is limited to only eight pieces around the world.

After two partnerships that fringe the realm of fast cars, finally, Roger Dubuis announced the final piece to the puzzle. And that piece was their partnership with the Italian supercar marque, Lamborghini.

To prove that their relationship with Lamborghini isn’t just superficial, they even launched a brand new movement to accompany the announcement. Where most of the Roger Dubuis collection leans slightly to the classical, traditional side in terms of design, the Excalibur Aventador S is pure excitement in terms of its design. The RD103SQ movement was designed specifically to look almost like an engine sitting within the multi-layered carbon case and even is the first movement from the maison to use a 90° double sprung balances linked with a differential. With the announcement coming so late in the year, we are certainly holding our breath to see what’s coming when SIHH rolls around in January. Until then, stay tuned.