Design
Roger Dubuis Excalibur The Kabuto Legacy: Twelve Samurai Helmets on a 28-Piece Pink Gold Watch
Roger Dubuis swaps its Round Table knights for twelve hand-engraved samurai helmets around an abstract Edo Castle. The Excalibur The Kabuto Legacy is a 28-piece edition in a 45mm 18K pink gold case, powered by the automatic Caliber RD821.
By NBT Editors · 2026-10-22
Swiss high-horology house Roger Dubuis has closed out its 2026 releases with the Excalibur The Kabuto Legacy (ref. DBEX1139). It takes the brand's long-running Knights of the Round Table idea, a dial ringed by twelve figures, and relocates it from Camelot to Japan's 17th-century unification. The edition is limited to 28 pieces.
Where the older models show knights, the hour markers here are twelve kabuto, or samurai helmets, each tied to a historical commander. Every one is hand-engraved in 18K pink gold, and the aBlogtoWatch report says each takes two to three days to complete. Tokugawa Ieyasu's helmet sits at the top with fern-frond ornamentation. Kato Yoshiaki's, at 11 o'clock, carries a pair of arching bird-tail ornaments. The roster also includes Date Masamune, Honda Tadakatsu, Kuroda Nagamasa and Hosokawa Tadaoki, among others. Date Masamune's helmet has a crescent moon, while his crest, bamboo leaves and sparrows, is a different motif.
In the middle stands an abstract Edo Castle built from 17 separate pink gold components finished in blue CVD or black PVD. Pink gold hands rise from the castle to tell the time.
The case is 45 mm across and nearly 17 mm thick, made of 18K pink gold, with a sapphire ring beneath the bezel that lets light reach the miniature sculptures. Inside runs the automatic Caliber RD821 with a 48-hour power reserve. Through the display caseback you can see a rotor with a blue-finished ring, laser-engraved with the twelve family crests, or kamon, of the commanders on the dial. The blue calf leather strap has a pink gold deployant clasp and hand-stitched, overlapping panels that echo samurai armor.
SJX describes the watch as one that makes sense through an artistic lens, treating the case as a miniature gallery. For Japanese readers, the choice of commanders and crests is likely the most interesting part.
(Details are drawn from points that agree across reports by aBlogtoWatch, Monochrome Watches, SJX Watches.)
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