Background
Roger Dubuis was born in 1938, in Corbeyrier, in the Swiss canton of Vaud.
Route du Pont Butin 43, 1213 Petit Lancy, Switzerland
Roger Dubuis was passionate about watches and their mechanics since early childhood. His passion led him to enroll in the School of Horology in Geneva (École d'horlogerie de Genève).
Roger Dubuis
Roger Dubuis
Roger Dubuis
Roger Dubuis
Roger Dubuis
Roger Dubuis
Roger Dubuis
Roger Dubuis was born in 1938, in Corbeyrier, in the Swiss canton of Vaud.
Roger Dubuis was passionate about watches and their mechanics since early childhood. His passion led him to enroll in the School of Horology of Geneva (École d'horlogerie de Genève).
Roger Dubuis began his watchmaking career at Longines in the 1950s. After nine years at St Imier, he moved to the high complications workshops at Patek Philippe, where he spent 15 years specializing in more complex watch movements. In the 1980s, he set up his own watch and clock repair shop in Geneva. But business eventually slowed down and that was when he started working on his first movement, or at least the first module, the biretrograde perpetual.
In the early 1990s, Dubuis, the modest, subtle watchmaker, met Carlos Dias, who later became the swaggering impresario of the Roger Dubuis brand. By 1995, Dias had convinced Dubuis to found the Société Genevoise des Montres, later renamed Manufacture Roger Dubuis. Roger Dubuis’s products - whose prices range from about $12,000 to $1 million - quickly became known for innovative watch design.
The first Roger Dubuis watches were acclaimed by collectors because they were channeled the traditional Geneva watchmaking that Patek Philippe personified while having more stylistic flair. The watches were, without exaggeration, both beautiful and interesting.
In the beginning, Roger Dubuis watches came in two styles: Sympathie and Hommage. Shaped like a cushion with sharpened corners, the Sympathie was remarkably different and later became the signature shape of the brand. Though in later years Dias claimed credit for designing the shape, Dubuis explained that the basic form was proposed by a case maker in the Vallée de Joux, then refined by himself and Dias.
In 1999 Roger Dubuis company designed and produced its first in-house movements, all certified with a prestigious Poinçon de Genève. In 2001 Roger Dubuis Company built an impressive Manufacture building on the outskirts of Geneva, and in 2003 the company produced its first in-house watch regulating organ: the sprung balance.
Dubuis was 65 years old when he retired and ultimately left the firm. In 2008, five years later, the brand was picked up by the luxury group, Richemont. In 2010, the house called upon its founder Roger Dubuis to be a consultant and brand ambassador.
Quotations: "I wanted a Genevan business, a Genevan product. As I had a specific idea, an interest in the history of past watches, it was a qualitative element that I wanted to see endure in the house. But at the same time, I found it important to encourage creativity."
Quotes from others about the person
"Roger Dubuis was one of the last master watchmakers who left a brand in his name but whose destiny, like a Greek tragedy, had slipped through his gold fingers." - Gregory Pons