PRE-SIHH: First look at the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Automatic Skeleton.

Felix Scholz

The Skeleton is in. And we’re not talking the fancy traditional scrollwork of skeletons you might see from brands like Breguet. But rather the aggressively masculine and architectural skeletonized watches as epitomized by these Roger Dubuis Excalibur models that will be formally unveiled at SIHH.

If there’s anyone to lead the decidedly 21st century skeleton charge it’d have to be Roger Dubuis. The high-end (they’re the only brand to have every single production piece stamped with this mark of excellence) manufacturer have been making open-worked, skeletonized watches since before it was cool, and the vanguard is their signature Excalibur collection.

This year Roger Dubuis is releasing two new skeletonized Excaliburs, the Spider Skeleton Flying Tourbillon and the Automatic Skeleton. Of the two we’re actually a little more excited by the more accessibly priced automatic version (and accessibly sized at 42mm) – because, well lets be real here, the tourbillon toting versions have big price tags (the Spider Skeleton mentioned above comes in at around $170,000 US), and while the automatic version isn’t cheap (around $83,000 US) it’s a somewhat more accessible price than the mega-tourbillon versions of the Excalibur that RD is famous for.

And aside from the oh so gauche hip pocket aesthetics it’s an awesome looking watch. The star shaped skeleton is plated with grey rhodium, which means it’ll look great in real life, and the RD820SQ movement with 60 hours power reserve is clearly the star of the show. And the star of the movement (literally), is the off centre microrotor, which is itself somewhat skeletonized. Inception level stuff.