The Kabuto legacy
Twelve samurai. One dial. One era of peace.
The Excalibur Kabuto Legacy gathers twelve of the great samurai of feudal Japan on a single dial, each recalled by the kabuto that announced them in their own time. At the centre stands Edo Castle, the seat from which a unified Japan opened 265 years of peace in 1603.
The architecture of peace
Métiers d'art
At the centre of the dial, Edo Castle is rebuilt in miniature from seventeen pink gold elements worked across four decorative techniques. The roofs are finished in pink gold, some carrying a blue CVD coating and others a black PVD, while the building elements are shotblasted and the floor is laser-engraved. Read as architecture, the blue of the roofs answers the indigo of the strap. It is the still point of the composition, the council of kabuto set around it.
Shaping the twelve Samourai
Twelve kabuto stand on the dial, one for each of the bushō who brought Japan's age of civil conflict to a close. Each helmet is sculpted and finished by hand, faithful to the crest and the character of the lord who once wore it. Honda Tadakatsu and his towering deer antlers, Date Masamune and his golden crescent moon, the forms are drawn from the historical record and rendered in gold. Read together, they are a council in miniature, gathered around the peace they made possible.
Inspired by Japan
In the year 1603, after a century of civil war, the lords of Japan were brought under a single authority, and an era of peace began that would hold for 265 years. Edo Castle stood at its centre, the seat of the Tokugawa and the heart of a capital where craft, commerce, and art could flourish. The Excalibur Kabuto Legacy gathers that history on the dial: the lords who ended the wars, the castle that held the peace, and the indigo that travelled with them from the battlefield into the prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige.
Storytelling in every detail
The 45 mm pink gold case carries sword-like crown guards finished with blue enamel, a detail drawn from the armour it honours. On the caseback, the twelve kamon are laser-engraved into pink gold, the marks by which each family was known across Japan. Every surface is worked to the standard our craftspeople hold across the collection, the seen and the unseen alike.
The Kabuto legacy
A tribute to Japanese culture and history
Case
Distinctive triple-lug case with sculpted, geometric lines
Bezel
Graphic fluting, sharp and precise like a sword strike
Kamon
Laser-engraved on the caseback
Edo Castle
Pink gold elements
Crown
Sword-like crown guards
Flange
Double-sided flange, a Maison's seal
Strap
Inspired by the elements of the armor
Monobalancier
RD821
Roger Dubuis’s automatic mechanical movements display the hours and minutes. All parts of the movement are hand-finished according to the traditional criteria of the Poinçon de Genève.
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MOVEMENT
- Energy: Automatic, self-winding
- Indications: Hour - Minute
- Power reserve: 48 Hours
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Decor
Rhodium-plated "Côtes de Genève" decoration "Poinçon de Genève" finishings
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Technical Details
- Number of pieces: 172
- Number of rubis: 33
- Diameter: 11 1/2'''
- Thickness: 3.43 mm
- Frequency: 28800 Frequency (vph)
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