Roger Dubuis’s Excalibur Spider Flyback Chronograph Is a Supercar fo the Wrist

Images Courtesy Roger Dubuis

It begins, as these things often do, with a complication.

Roger Dubuis has taken the chronograph—a staple of sport and speed—and reimagined it through the baroque lens of haute horology. The result? The Excalibur Spider Flyback Chronograph: a kinetic sculpture masquerading as a timepiece, or perhaps the other way around.

Beneath its skeletonized architecture lies the RD780, a fully integrated movement crafted not just to track time, but to revel in it. There's a vertical clutch, a column wheel machined with such finery it practically deserves its own opera, and innovations like the Second Braking System to ensure your seconds hand doesn’t twitch like an overcaffeinated squirrel.

At 3 o’clock, you’ll find the Rotating Minute Counter—a 120-degree, triple-armed spectacle that spins like a roulette wheel of precision. It’s patented, naturally. At 9 o’clock, the 12° tilted balance wheel peeks out with the coyness of a courtesan, its parts diamond-coated and magnetism-resistant, because of course they are.

All this is wrapped in a 45mm skeletonized pink gold case, mounted on a black rubber strap (because high watchmaking, but make it sporty). And for those who care about such things—88 pieces only. A nod to Monsieur Dubuis’ lucky number, hidden in the tachymeter like a wink across a crowded ballroom.

The dial is less an interface than a stage—layered, dynamic, alive. From the skeletonized pushers to the supercar-inspired rotor on the caseback, this is not a watch that asks politely for your attention. It commands it.

This, then, is chronograph as theatre. Speed as art. Time, not conquered—but choreographed.