H40 Roger Dubuis Hommage, White Gold

Well before what we know today, Roger Dubuis produced eight years of deadly serious, nearly-classical Geneva watchmaking. Dubuis spent nine years at Longines and fourteen in Patek Philippe's complications workshop, where the 2499 and 3448 crossed his bench, left in 1980 to restore other people's masterpieces, and founded his brand with Carlos Dias in 1995. The Hommage series, named in tribute to the old masters, is generally dated 1995 to 2003, when Dubuis retired, though the earliest chronograph paperwork Revolution could find is stamped November 1996. Early Roger Dubuis, in design and finish, often feels closer to the Patek Philippe of old than much of Patek Philippe does today.

Photography for this Find comes courtesy of a prior sale by A Collected Man.

Hommages came in 34, 37 and 40mm, precious metals only, never steel. Here it's white gold with a circular-brushed black dial, applied Arabic numerals, feuille hands, and 'Bulletin d'Observatoire' printed where others put marketing. The stepped concave bezel and flared round pushers are a knowing nod to Patek's 1463 'Tasti Tondi'. It also beat the 5070 to market by roughly two years, on the same Lemania 2310 base.

Calibre RD56 is that 2310: 21 jewels, column wheel, swan-neck regulator, Geneva Seal, and a Besançon Observatory certificate earned over 16 days in five positions and three temperatures, a far stiffer test than COSC, with regulation by Dubuis himself. How many? The defensible answer is 28 per variant, individually numbered, with no published total. Revolution counts 14 H40 dial versions, five with Arabic numerals, across four metals; whether every series was completed is unconfirmed.

There’s many unknowns in that regard. The 28 is a story in itself: the plan was 25 or 26, depending on who tells it, until Dias added a lucky eight for Asian clients. The monopusher is reportedly scarcer still. All of these early chronographs nod to a time when Roger Dubuis meant something entirely different, something reserved and carefully executed, something nearly perfect—and they’re starting to be collected as such.