TBF Factory Roger Dubuis EXCALIBUR (Excalibur series) 0542 (0543) watch review

Roger Dubuis Wristwatch 0542 model is produced by leading Super Clone manufacturer workshops with a 5th class titanium case, 45 mm diameter and high precision automatic Super Clone mechanism architecture. It is among the most successful 1:1 super clone watch reviews on the market, with its sapphire crystal AR coating glass, original case tolerances and detailed workmanship.

First, let's take a look at the parts of this watch.

First, let's put it on the scale; You can tell at a glance whether it is a real titanium case or not. The average total weight of the watch is approximately 110 grams; Despite its 45 mm case diameter, it guarantees to remain light enough on the wrist.

You can check out the real product in the short video below.

This watch, like most watches, consists of parts such as the case body, front and back cover, glass, dial surface, hour and minute hands, mechanism, spring pin, strap and buckle. Although this watch consists of the same parts, some of its parts are quite difficult.

1. Case body

All parts of the case body are seen at a glance in the picture. Case body; The case consists of the main body, front cover, glass, back cover and glass. Made of titanium alloy; It goes through a series of stages, from material selection to forging, shaping with CNC machining and then machining.

1) The difficulty is in the forging craftsmanship. (Heating temperature is of great importance in the hot working of titanium alloy. As the temperature decreases, the deformation resistance increases, making defects such as cracks easier to form; it is also highly dependent on the deformation rate in the hot working process. In the precision hot die machining of titanium alloy, when the temperature of the forging die is heated to the same or higher level as the forged part, the temperature drop of the part during forging can be prevented.)

2) The second issue is the general processing problem. Due to the material properties of titanium alloy (metallographic sample preparation of titanium and titanium alloys is more difficult than steel; polishing and polishing efficiency is low, excessively hard cutting and polishing processes create deformation twins in the α phase, microstructure analysis of titanium is disrupted after deformation twins are formed).

To obtain a better machining result, the material needs to be beaten; However, there are no obvious sand holes in the product processed in this way and the workmanship made in this way has a better hardness!

3) High transparency sapphire glass used on the glass side; Its hardness reaches level 9 and an anti-reflective blue coating is applied to its surface.

4) The first thing to consider in the coating part is why the coating of the original does not discolour easily. Currently, the best method for colorfast coating is in-oven vacuum coating; That's why only in-furnace vacuum coating was applied to DBEX0542.

2. Dial surface (difficulty)

Many problems were encountered while making the dial surface. From the outside it looks like there is nothing special; However, when disassembled, it turns out that the dial surface consists of three layers. As seen in the picture, it consists of three layers and the hour marker nails are embedded in the outermost layer last.

Ordinary dial surfaces are only a single layer; first the dial material is selected, then the special layer process is applied, then the entire dial is printed or produced by 3D printing, and finally the hour marker nails are embedded; These nails are also the same as each other. You can look at the dial workmanship for details. But the dial surface of this Roger Dubuis is extremely special. First of all, the dial structure is a multi-layered workmanship; In addition, the hour markers in the form of Roman numerals consist of 30 different shaped stick nails. You can see the overall effect by looking at the first photo of the dial. The hour marker nails are all metal material; Just making molds for these nails requires 30 separate molds. Additionally, lume powder is filled into the hollow parts of the hour marker nails. Since the shape of each nail is different, masters face many difficulties in the process of filling lume powder. So, I can say without exaggeration that a mid-to-low-end replica watch can be purchased with the cost of this single dial surface; a domestic XX movement can be purchased for the cost of a single hour marker nail.

Compared to this nail, I don't even want to write about the other parts of the dial anymore after writing this far; You, dear readers, can imagine the rest yourself!

3. Hour and minute hands

Two colors have been developed for the hour and minute hands: one set in high-polished steel and one set in coated.

4. Mechanism

The micro-rotor mechanism itself is a problem in itself due to the special structure of the mechanism. The biggest problem of the micro-rotor mechanism is to solve the structural layout and also solve the problem of automatic installation efficiency. This mechanism was modified and tested many times during the development of the watch as a whole, and the above problems were solved in the same way; A truly stable, efficient and precise result was achieved. The overall processing is extremely meticulous!

5. Strap and others

1) The entire series comes with a crocodile leather strap as standard. Since the cost of the crocodile leather strap is high, many manufacturers do not want to invest much money here; That's why many people have to allocate an additional budget and buy a crocodile leather strap after purchasing the watch. There is a concept called half-covering and full-coverage in crocodile leather strap workmanship; This is a workmanship used in joining the upper leather and lower leather of the strap. In terms of cost, full veneer labor is much more expensive than half veneer. But rest assured, first-class leather is used in this crocodile skin, the workmanship is absolutely full-coverage, special padding is embedded inside; It was literally done completely in one go.

2) Spring pins are also specially produced. Ordinary standard spring pins make it difficult to attach and remove the strap; The solution to this problem is to produce special spring pins and make everything as simple as possible.

3) Now we come to the most criticized part

buckle The buckle is also made of titanium alloy. In fact, from the very beginning, metal parts such as the buckle were the most criticized part. So why hasn't this problem changed in all this time? The main reason is the budget problem. A good buckle costs several times more than a buckle with slightly worse workmanship; and many times over. During the sales process, the sales price cannot be increased because extra costs were incurred for the buckle. This is the main reason why the buckle is always criticized and cannot be solved. Let me also add this: welding titanium alloy is really not easy!

4) Screws falling out, screws breaking or breaking... I'm sure many people have experienced these.

You don't see wrong, all screws are specially produced. Due to production requirements, they are made as forged screws. Just to avoid such troubles. "Cost-free" isn't an exaggeration for this Roger Dubuis watch, is it?

Finally, let's finish with two photos of the wrist.

The texture, technique, closeness to the original and stability are all very good; If you like it you can buy it.