When I think of Roger Dubuis watches, I picture oversized, complicated, extravagant sports watches that compete with the likes of Richard Mille and Jacob & Co., thanks to wild watches like the brand’s series of 45mm skeletonized Lamborghini collabs and its crazy Knights of the Round Table watches that feature three-dimensional knights as hour markers.
But underneath that brash exterior is a company with some serious watchmaking capability and a back-catalog filled with gorgeous dress watches. In fact, Roger Dubuis, which was founded by its namesake master watchmaker in 1995, didn’t even release its first sports watch until 2004.
During the first decade of its life, the brand was best known for its original Hommage collection, a series of traditional dress watches inspired by some vintage references from Patek Philippe, one of the companies for which Dubuis worked before striking out on his own.
Now, in honor of the brand’s 30th anniversary and its late founder, who passed away in 2017, Roger Dubuis has brought back the Hommage as a brand-new model that is shockingly compact, classy and stunning.
Paying Hommage
The new Hommage La Placide — named for Mr. Dubuis’ childhood nickname — brings back the classic round case of the original Hommage series from 1996, but it’s been completely rebuilt and reengineered. It was also manufactured in-house by Roger Dubuis, a relative rarity for a luxury watch brand.
The case is made of 18K pink gold and measures 38mm across and just 11mm thick. Those are impressive proportions for any perpetual calendar, but for Roger Dubuis — which exclusively trades in massive watches for its men’s collection these days — it’s especially noteworthy.