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| Roger Dubuis Watch |
This is a long success story. But this doesn't exactly mean that Roger Dubuis has had success for a long time with his unusual watches. It means that it took a long time for the master watchmaker to be accorded the attention that is his due.
After graduating from the Genevan School of Watchmaking with honors at the end of the 1950s, barely twenty years old, he entered the world of work. Over the next twenty years he made himself into a specialist for highly complicated movements during various sojourns at the greatest of the Genevan watch manufactures. In 1980 he ventured out on his own by opening a small repair and restoration workshop, and he received his first contracts for construction and detail development at the same time. Soon Roger Dubuis was known as a specialist in unusual problem solving, and designers of all the great Genevan brands, who happened to be at a loss for a good solution, came knocking at his door. Dubuis would probably still be doing this today for a comparatively modest fee if destiny hadn't led Carlos Dias to walk through the door of his workshop.
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Dias and Dubuis, with the help of a hired watchmaker, began developing and producing their first watch models in 1995. Carlos Dias's ties to the international collectors' scene brought about quick success in 1996, and the trio, working around the clock for the first few months, was able to turn this "disadvantage"
into a great advantage. "We weren't set up for mass production," admits Roger Dubuis freely. "And our customers actually wanted unique pieces, totally personal watches. One of them summed it up nicely: 'The concept of sitting in an airplane in first class and seeing another man wearing the same watch is an absolute horror for me.' So we decided to never make more than twenty-five pieces of anyone series." The fact that this number was actually changed to twenty-eight is the topic of another story ... From the very beginning, Dubuis's own contribution to the production of the movements was large enough to allow him to put the desirable Seal of Geneva on them. The strict rules applying to the use of the Seal secured him not only the admiration of his colleagues but also the support of the customers who had gotten to know the young brand, so demanding of itself. As a member of the Groupement Genevois de Cabinotiers, a loose organization of quality and status-conscious
Genevan watchmakers and engineers, Dubuis today feels himself even more obliged to work according to Geneva's "watch purity law."
The brand-new, very large, airy construction in the industrial quarter of Meyrin-Satigny has already become too small after only two years of use and has been expanded to a further building. The great amount of energy put into this expansion serves the goal of achieving the greatest amount of freedom in production possible: Except for just a small amount of parts supplied, almost all of the components that make up Roger Dubuis watches are constructed on the machines located here. Even if the number of pieces in each series is not that large, the technical energy put into constructing the filigreed components is immense.
To judge by the impressive set of machines, Dubuis and Dias still have quite a few plans:
Their movements, divided into five families, ar at least partially outfitted with the company's own escapements (including pallets and sprin
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Roger Dubuis
100 N. Wilkes-Barre Boulevard, Suite 303
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702
Tel.: 717-822-1900
Fax: 717-822-4699
www.rogerdubuis.com
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