Luxury watchmakers and tattoo artists may not seem like natural collaborators, but Roger Dubuis’s four-year partnership with L.A.-based Dr. Woo, the tattoo artist best known for his single-needle style and his celebrity following, proves otherwise.
“When we first started, it was intimidating for me to come into the world of hyper horology,” Dr. Woo, whose real name is Brian Woo, tells Robb Report. “I’m learning new words and new terms and new etiquette. But when I talked to the watchmakers and the design team, it was so similar to what I do—the time, dedication, apprenticeship, attention to detail. It was refreshing to see how eye-to-eye we were on certain things.”
Their latest creation debuted June 18 at an intimate event at Dr. Woo’s Hideaway, a loft space tucked behind the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood, where the partners introduced their third collaborative watch, the Excalibur Monotourbillon Dr. Woo Episode III. The artwork on the piece features the same cosmic themes that united the first two models—a limited-edition rose-gold Monotourbillon introduced in 2021 and a black-on-black Monobalancier that came out two years later—but this time, the perspective shifts 31 million light years away to the Whirlpool Galaxy, aka Messier 51a. The swirling arms of the galaxy, as seen in NASA imagery from the James Webb Telescope, inform the watch’s design.
“I love the idea that in a world where we know so much, there’s still so much more to unravel,” Dr. Woo says. “The first piece delved into that, mapping out the skies, leaning into my design aesthetic, which has a lot of geometric technical details. The second watch we added a few more celestial entities like the sun, the moon, and our relationship with the movements of the sky above us. But both took the perspective of having our feet on the ground looking up. And for this third one, we are up and we’re in there and we don’t know what’s unfolding before us. So, there are vortexes and black holes and we’re leaning into the possibility of the unknown and trusting that it will take us to new or exciting places.”
Episode III, nicknamed the “We Come in Peace” edition, is housed in a 42 mm case of 18-karat pink gold and titanium. Dr. Woo’s signature motifs return: a spider, engraved symbols on the bezel, and a spaceship—created using 3D galvanic growth and metallised in pink gold—hovering on the crystal’s surface. His minimalist, monochromatic aesthetic, a hallmark of single needle tattooing, echoes throughout.
The attention to detail is extraordinary. At 9 o’clock, three pink gold nebulas appear beneath the sapphire glass. Between 10 and 11 o’clock, a spiral-shaped, pink-gold-treated steel component represents a black hole. On the back, that same spiral reemerges, now blackened and surrounded by a chequerboard pattern, suggesting an exit from the void.
In keeping with the watch’s galactic peace mission theme, a message is etched on the caseback: “Let’s work together to uncover the mysteries of the cosmos and unlock the secrets of the universe. To whoever finds this message, know that we are seekers of knowledge and explorers of the unknown.”
Roger Dubuis’s signature flying tourbillon sits at 7 o’clock with a customised cage—titanium below, a pared-down, three-arm bridge above. Only 28 pieces will be made, each priced at USD 1,80,000 (approximately INR 1,54,03,500).
“It’s all in the details,” says Laurent Toinet, president of Roger Dubuis Americas. “I could talk about the movement—it’s beautiful—but you have to look for the spider.”
For Dr. Woo, it’s about respecting both the craftsmanship and the universal themes that inspired it. “I don’t want people to see this watch and feel like, ‘Oh, it’s a tattooed watch,’ or ‘It’s cool because it’s the high and low of two different worlds,’” he says. “I just want people to appreciate the craft and maybe see the world through my perspective.”
