Having forged a partnership with tyre-maker Pirelli, which was announced at SIHH 2017, and a subsequent tie-up with Italdesign Giugiaro, Roger Dubuis replica watches continue to deepen its association with motorsport by partnering with one of its most legendary marques, Lamborghini. This union is being inaugurated with a pair of Excalibur Aventador S watches.
“The collaboration came by chance, and it became kind of a love story quite quickly,” explains Edouard Cottin, the watchmaker’s International Sales Director. “We were thinking about associating our brand with other universes, and we wanted to find an interesting angle in terms of product innovation, with regards to mechanics, materials as well as design.”
“We’re not in a fun industry,” says Cottin, “but we have more and more millennials who are out looking for fun. If you can add different dimensions to a one-dimensional product; a disruptive approach to a classical product, they are very receptive.” For its Pirelli collaboration, Roger Dubuis introduced a series of colour coded watches with straps featuring rubber inlays made from tyres used on race-winning Formula 1 cars.
Offering the perfect parallel, Lamborghini’s purposeful positioning as a brand that transcends automobiles is winning over a new generation of consumers, becoming deeply embedded in pop culture – with celebrities from Drake to Kanye West to Justin Bieber owning its aggressively styled cars. In contrast to its more refined and docile rival in Maranello, Lamborghini is the unrelenting wild child of Italian supercars.
But this partnership isn’t just a mere exercise in marketing pageantry; the watches ultimately speak for themselves. Accompanying the announcement are the Excalibur Aventador S limited editions.
Both are powered by the Duotor, a skeletonised calibre inspired by the naturally aspirated V12 that’s been the power plant in every flagship Roger Dubuis Lamborghini replica watches since its first production sports car, the 350 GT of 1964.