Twenty years into its existence, Rudis Sylva arrived at Watches & Wonders 2026 not with a gentle anniversary piece, but with something far bolder. The RS11 is a square-cased, hand-wound timepiece that the Maison originally designed in 2011 and chose, until now, to keep locked away. Available in titanium and pink gold, it channels two decades of Jura craftsmanship into a single, remarkably coherent statement.
The Dial: Colour as Architecture
The titanium version opens with a purple dial that shifts in gradient from the deepest, almost black-violet tones at the base to brighter fuchsia-inflected hues towards the top. Rudis Sylva structures the colour across multiple layers: the guilloché main plate receives a black-purple PVD treatment, the hour and minute subdial picks up the same palette, and the three-quarter bridge continues it seamlessly.
The subdial sits in the upper portion of the dial and uses Roman numerals with rhodium-treated hands, their silvery finish cutting sharply against the deep violet ground. The hands and indices share the same metallic tone as the exposed gear train below, which creates a deliberate visual rhythm between the displayed time and the visible mechanics underneath.
For the gold version, the main plate receives a progressive circular pyramid guilloché pattern, executed using a straight-line engine requiring the simultaneous operation of two spindles by both hands. Georges Brodbeck, Gaïa Prize laureate from the Musée international d’horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, crafted the two prototype plates shown at the Geneva fair. The material removal reaches only 6 hundredths of a millimetre per pass, and the plate demands three separate turnings to complete the pattern.
Harmonious Oscillator and the Art of Finishing
At the heart of the RS11 sits the in-house Harmonious Oscillator, patent no. 700747, a regulating system that Rudis Sylva first unveiled in Basel in 2009. The principle inverts classical watchmaking logic: instead of avoiding any load on the balance, the movement uses two complete toothed balance wheels mechanically linked together and driven by a single escapement with one pallet fork set at 90 degrees.
The result is instantaneous gravity correction. The cage carrying the two balance wheels completes a full 360-degree rotation every 60 seconds, with a frequency of 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz). The two flat, asymmetric balance-springs deploy in constantly opposed positions, ensuring identical amplitude on both wheels. Power reserve stands at approximately 70 hours via manual winding over 49 crown revolutions.
The finishing of the titanium oscillator bridge alone takes up to 25 hours of hand work, producing 28 interior angles in a material notoriously resistant to traditional bevelling tools. Rudis Sylva performs the bevelling using gentian wood harvested at 1,000 metres altitude and dried in late autumn, which delivers the ideal hardness for mirror-polished edges. Beyond bevelling, the bridges receive line finishing, pearlage and sand-blasting in alternating sequences. All gear train recesses are hand-polished, and the train passages are hand circular-grained.
41 mm Square, Three Crystals, One Vision
The 41 mm square titanium or pink gold case measures 14 mm in height and carries a 30-metre water resistance rating. Three sapphire crystals, curved on the front, flat at the back and on the side, each carry anti-reflective coating on both faces. The side crystal in particular gives a direct view of the movement’s depth from the wrist.
Rudis Sylva applies a horizontal satin finish to the case sides, stopping with precision at the edge, while the case middle alternates polished and satin surfaces for a layered visual effect. The horns are polished, set 25 mm apart, and carry a genuine large-scale alligator strap with leather lining. A version without alligator leather is available for those who prefer it.
A Watch That Took 15 Years to Arrive
The RS11 earns its place among the most technically distinctive independent pieces of 2026. No official retail price has been confirmed at the time of writing, which is consistent with Rudis Sylva’s discreet, collector-first approach. Given the hand labour involved in a single piece, from 25 hours of bridge bevelling to the guilloché work by a Gaïa Prize master, pricing in the rarefied six-figure range would surprise no one. For a brand that kept this design in a drawer for 15 years before releasing it, patience is clearly something Jacky Epitaux and his team understand better than most.
