To mark its 20th anniversary this year, Swiss luxury watchmaker Roger Dubuis is to launch an exclusive line of restored vintage grand complication pocket watches, in a tribute to its founder.

Part of its Hommage line, the new Hommage Millésime is the first of an annual series of pocket watches, each powered by a vintage ébauche (movement blank) and embodying a wealth of restoration work.

The movement blanks will be restored and upgraded to meet Poinçon de Genève (Geneva Seal) certification. Each will incorporate a perpetual calendar, either alone or accompanied by one or more of the other three most sophisticated of complications: the minute repeater, tourbillon or chronograph.

The Millésime concept’s roots date back to 2001, when founder Roger Dubuis purchased several ébauches with the intention of upgrading them to Poinçon de Genève standards. The first restored piece with an RD60 calibre sold for a CFR1 million ($1.05 million), but the project was subsequently placed on standby until his return to the firm some years later.

Now, to commemorate its 20th anniversary, the manufacture is relaunching this project using the remaining movement blanks gifted by its founder for a series of one-of-a kind creations as part of the Hommage collection.

Only one Millésime will be produced a year to commemorate special occasions, and they will be available exclusively in Roger Dubuis boutiques.

The first Hommage Millésime is the RD181 calibre, a late 19th/early 20th century ébauche hunted down by Roger Dubuis himself, and initially comprising a minute repeater, a perpetual calendar and a chronograph.

It commemorates the launch of Roger Dubuis’s new Geneva boutique and will go on sale at the store which opens this month.

This 60-mm pocket watch’s calibre is engraved with the signature of Roger Dubuis. The owner will be able to personalise the chain by replacing various links with a series of pink gold plaques that may be engraved with messages. 

An officer-type back cover is designed to bear a signature and personalised inscription at the client’s discretion. 

 The RD181 took two years to develop and called for 1,950 hours of work including 700 hours of restoration on the calibre alone. During the process, the perpetual calendar was modified to host two retrograde displays, thereby evoking the first perpetual calendar models produced by the manufacture.

Twenty professionals were involved in the decoration and the timepiece was also tested to the criteria of the Poinçon de Genève, involving a simulation of wearing it on the wrist for a week with a one-minute variation of precision, a test made even more demanding on an over-century-old pocket watch, says Roger Dubuis.