Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026 has already wrapped, but one of the clearer narratives to emerge from the fair is Roger Dubuis’ continued focus on astronomy as a design language rather than a decorative theme. Under its “Movements of the Sky” concept, the Maison introduces four new watches that treat celestial cycles as mechanical problems to solve.
The centrepiece is the Excalibur Biretrograde Perpetual Calendar. It arrives in a 40 mm pink gold case and leans heavily into open-worked construction, with a layered Astral Blue dial that keeps the movement visible at every angle.
That animation comes from the biretrograde system. Instead of a conventional sweep, the day and date hands travel along a defined arc before snapping instantly back to their starting point.
Inside is the new in-house RD850 calibre. It’s built around a cam-and-lever system that tracks month lengths automatically and is designed to run without adjustment until 2100.
Alongside it sits an astronomical moonphase, calculated to the precise lunar cycle of 29 days, 12 hours and 45 minutes. In practical terms, it stays accurate to within one day over 122 years.
The overall construction is deliberately multi-layered. Bridges, apertures and subdials are arranged across different planes, giving the dial a structured, almost architectural feel rather than a flat surface.
Elsewhere in the same collection, the narrative shifts from astronomy to mythology. The Excalibur Lady of the Lake and Brocéliande Dawn pieces draw on Arthurian references, using materials such as mother-of-pearl, moonstone and lacquered surfaces to interpret forest light, water and dawn transitions in mechanical form.
The Lady of the Lake models, in particular, reduce the case size to 36 mm and push a more jewellery-like execution, while still anchoring the design around mechanical watchmaking.
Taken together, the collection shows how Roger Dubuis is positioning traditional complications in a more contemporary context.
