With an illustrious career as a mater watchmaker, Roger Dubuis’ journey to greatness started in the late 1950’s when he stepped foot inside Longines where he worked at the after sales department, repairing and servicing timepieces including the firm’s coveted chronographs. After, Roger Dubuis spent over 20 years at Patek Philippe working alongside Svend Andersen at the complications department creating the finest movements including minute repeaters and perpetual calendars while building a reputation of his own as one of the most talented watchmakers at the time.

After leaving Patek Philippe, Dubuis went to set up his own workshop in Geneva in the 1980s servicing important timepieces for brands and auction houses. During this time, Dubuis developed his own movements and the first featured a retrograde perpetual calendar mechanism that was compatible with a Lemania movement, which was widely used during his time at Patek Philippe.

In 1995, a major milestone occurred when Roger Dubuis partnered with businessman Carlos Diaz to create the Roger Dubuis brand in 1995. Two models were introduced during the first year of production, the Hommage and the Sympathie, each housing Roger Dubuis’ in-house calibers featuring various complications from time only to perpetual calendar chronograph timepieces.

The present Roger Dubuis Sympathie S40 features a perpetual calendar chronograph function with the firm’s signature bi-retrograde day and date indications, housed in the iconic “curved” square-shaped case measuring 40mm diameter. Early Roger Dubuis timepieces are rare as each model was made as a limited edition of 28 pieces only. Powered by the in-house cal. RD5632 based on the Lemania cal. 2310, which was also the same base used for Patek Philippe’s ref. 3970, the quality of the movement is second to none with excellent finishing.