Rough Riders: The Watch for Summer Adventurers

There are timepieces made for the boardroom, and timepieces made for the open road. The Pirata Rough Riders belongs firmly to the second kind. Cased in titanium and bronze, generous on the wrist and unafraid of the sun, it was conceived for the most intense days of summer — for sand, wind and freedom. Behind its bold presence, though, lies a story older than any holiday: a charge across history, written in the Cuban-Swiss language of the brand.

This is not a borrowed legend. The story of Cuba and the story of Cuervo y Sobrinos are interwoven, and the island’s struggles and triumphs have long been a source of inspiration for the house founded in Havana in 1882. The watch marks the 125th anniversary of the battle, and is issued as a limited edition of 125 pieces — one for each year — turning a moment of history into something you can wear.

The Rough Riders themselves were an unlikely brotherhood: ranchers and college athletes, lawmen and adventurers, bound together by a single summer of campaigning on Cuban soil. Roosevelt would carry the experience with him all the way to the White House, and the regiment passed into legend as a symbol of nerve and improvisation. It is that temperament — resourceful, restless, unafraid of hard country — that the watch sets out to honour, rather than the politics of the war itself. The result is a tribute to a certain kind of summer courage.

*Discover the limited-edition Rough Riders on the official Cuervo y Sobrinos website.*

Built like a fortress

Everything about the Rough Riders signals resilience. The case measures a commanding 45 mm and combines two metals with intent: a bronze body that will develop its own warm patina over the years, and titanium lugs and caseback so that the bronze never sits against the skin. The result is a watch with genuine wrist presence — robust, tactile, alive to the passage of time in a way few materials manage.

The dial carries a subtle motif in relief at its centre, framed by a chemin de fer studded with luminescent dots. Cathedral-style hands and bold luminescent Arabic numerals, treated with Super-LumiNova in a warm, vintage tone reminiscent of old tritium, keep the time legible at a glance, while a central seconds hand tipped in openworked red adds a flash of energy. A date sits quietly at 6 o’clock. On the lower dial, crossed cavalry swords name the watch’s namesakes without a word.

Bronze is a deliberate choice rather than a decorative one. Long the metal of ships’ fittings and navigational instruments, it carries an unmistakably maritime memory — and unlike steel, it refuses to stay pristine. Exposed to air, salt and skin, it slowly darkens into a patina unique to each wearer, so that within a season or two no two Rough Riders look exactly alike. The titanium that lines the lugs and caseback keeps the watch surprisingly light for its 45 mm and ensures the bronze ages on the outside only, where it belongs.

The Pirata bloodline

The Rough Riders is part of the brand’s Pirata collection, a family of watches that draws on one of the most romantic chapters of Havana’s past. In the age of the Spanish treasure fleets, the harbour was a magnet for corsairs and privateers, who slipped into the city’s taverns between voyages and gave the port its lawless, swaggering reputation. The Pirata line gathers that spirit — bold cases, robust construction, a taste for adventure — and the Rough Riders is its most martial expression.

It is a fitting lineage. Both the cavalryman and the corsair lived by improvisation and nerve, far from comfort and close to risk, and both belong to the wider story the brand has been telling since 1882. Where the Historiador looks to the elegance of Havana’s drawing rooms and the Robusto to its confident mid-century masculinity, the Pirata looks to the sea — and to everyone who has ever preferred the horizon to the harbour wall.

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The engine for the journey

Beneath the bronze beats a dependable heart. The Rough Riders is powered by the CYS 5103, an automatic movement based on the Soprod M100, running on 25 jewels with a 42-hour power reserve — enough to carry the watch comfortably across a weekend off the wrist. It is exactly the kind of honest, self-winding calibre you want on an adventure: well made, easy to live with, and faithful to the Swiss savoir-faire at the heart of every Cuervo y Sobrinos timepiece.

With 5 ATM of water resistance it shrugs off rain and spray, and the supple leather strap balances the heft of the case. Like every watch from the house, it arrives in the brand’s signature cedar-wood box — a quiet nod to Havana cigar culture that doubles as a reminder of where the story began. Offered with a striking green dial as well as a deep black, the Rough Riders is as much a statement of taste as of stamina.

Pirata Rough Riders — Limited Edition45 mm titanium and bronze case · luminescent dial with cathedral hands · CYS 5103 automatic movement · 42-hour power reserve · 5 ATM · limited edition of 125 pieces. Shop now  →

For the spirit that won’t sit still

Some watches ask to be protected; the Rough Riders asks to be used. It is the companion for the part of summer that happens outdoors — the coastal drive, the long hike, the afternoon that runs into evening without anyone checking the time too closely. Paired with linen and salt air, it looks entirely at home; and because bronze ages with its wearer, no two examples will ever tell quite the same story.

A summer worth remembering

There is a versatility here that the bold looks might disguise. On a leather strap it reads as an adventurer’s watch; swap to a fabric band and it loosens into something for the beach and the boat. It sits as easily under a rolled linen sleeve as over a wetsuit cuff, and its warm metals flatter a tan in a way cold steel never quite does. For the traveller assembling a single watch to see them through July and August, few pieces cover as much ground.

The Rough Riders is, in the end, a watch about courage — the courage of the men it commemorates, and the small everyday courage of choosing to spend a summer fully rather than carefully. It carries its history lightly, in bronze and titanium, and wears it on the wrist of anyone ready to ride out and meet the season head-on.

Swiss precision, Latin soul: in this piece the brand’s motto takes on a sun-warmed, adventurous accent. With only 125 examples in existence, it is a timepiece for those who recognise that the best summers — like the best watches — are the ones lived without hesitation.

Discover the Rough Riders and the entire Cuervo y Sobrinos collection in the official online shop. Discover the collection  →