Neo-vintage Roger Dubuis has a very cult following, but still doesn’t feel like it gets talked about as much as it should. Dubuis spent more than 20 years in the industry working for the likes of Patek and others before launching a brand under his own name perfectly marrying classic watchmaking and design with unique styling that would become signature of the brand. Each reference was made in a run of just 28 pieces, with many speculated to not have been fully subscribed (so production may actually be lower), and everything was Geneva sealed, the highest certification of quality control and standards provided by the Swiss government!

The Much More takes a rectangular Cartier Cintree meets Tanks meets Patek Reference 10 shape with a slim, curved profile, including the sapphire crystal, in a classic two, spade-hand layout, but combines it with exploding numerals that are, in this case, mixed Roman and Arabic and foiled or applied metallic to create a mirror effect within each that’s as unique as it is fun. With that fun is real watchmaking as well, deep heat blued hands, the Geneva sealed manually wound in-house caliber, an excellent signed pin buckle, these watches are so good, and very underrated at this price point.

Reference: Much More M25 18 5

Case: The 25 x 44 x 7.2 mm thick 18-Carat rose gold case is in very good condition throughout, appearing to be unpolished, and showing only minor surface scratches, as photographed.

Dial: I love the dials of all the neo-vintage Roger Dubuis offerings and this one is no exception, and perhaps one of the coolest Much More dials I’ve seen with the mirrored or reflective mixed numerals. Due to the reflective applied foil it takes on different appearances depending on the surrounding environment and provides the perfect backdrop to the richly blued, traditional, spade hands. I always love the juxtaposition of the wild flair with the classic 24-hour railroad track and neatly charming fonts.

Movement: The in-house manually wound caliber RD 18 is an ultra slim, Geneva sealed movement with lovely finishing on view through the round sapphire opening in the caseback. It is winding buttery smooth and running at approximately +8 s/d, averaged across 6 positions.

Strap: The watch is presented on its original signed crocodile strap in good condition and tapered to the original signed rose gold buckle, in equally great condition as the case.

Includes: Adding to the list of why this era of Dubuis is so great, just look at this set! A vibrant orange outer box, a zebra wood inner box, a leather document folder, signed document envelope for the Certificate of Origin and Warranty that even includes a photo of the watch and 2004 date of sale, a movement certificate dated 2001 (also signed and matching), serialized leather hang tag, and Geneva seal hang tag!