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Fuente Fuente Opus X

Roughly twenty‑eight people alive are cleared to roll it.

Franklin Pichardo learned the shape inside the Arturo Fuente factory in Santiago, and he has been rolling since 1995. The count is from 2016, and it is further down this page with the article that printed it.

How he got there
Franklin Pichardo in his early years at the trade
Franklin, in his twenties

1995

Arturo Fuente

releases the first Fuente Fuente Opus X

Santiago

a sixteen-year-old is invited into the factory

He is exactly as old in this trade as the cigar is.

1995The year of the first Opus X, and the year he walked into the factoryHis own archive, and the history of the brand
1 of 28Rollers in the world cleared to make the Opus XPublished, July 2016
15Years holding one single shape — the Perfecxion No. 2His own archive
$1M+Raised the night he rolled for Hublot and Fuente in Las VegasNight of Champions, 2019
$200KRaised for the Cigar Family Foundation at Cars & Cigars, DetroitFuente and Celani Family Foundations, 2019

Where the hands were taught.

Arturo Fuente in Santiago is not a factory in the ordinary sense. Franklin calls it a museum, a school and a university — a place where you are taught discipline before you are taught tobacco. These are its halls.

Fuente Fuente Opus X Perfecxion No. 2

Fifteen years. One shape.

The Fuente Fuente Opus X Perfecxion No. 2 — six and three-eighths by fifty-two. A figurado leaves nowhere to hide an uneven bunch. A roller is given a shape and is judged by it, and Franklin held this one for fifteen years.

Vitola
Perfecxion No. 2
Ring gauge
6 3/8 × 52
Years
15
I have twenty-seven years carrying the Fuente name in my blood, with respect, admiration, love and loyalty. And it is not negotiable.
Franklin PichardoThe Legendary Cigar Roller

July 2016.

Franklin Pichardo with Carlos Fuente Sr., Carlos Fuente Jr. and Robert Levin
Robert Levin, Carlos Fuente Sr., Franklin, and Carlos Fuente Jr.Photograph published with his story in Cigar Journal, 4 July 2016

A magazine went looking for the people cleared to roll the Opus X and came back with a number: about twenty-eight, worldwide. Franklin had been one of them for years by then. Their words, not ours.

Read the whole story →
Franklin Pichardo with Carlos 'Carlito' Fuente Jr. at his shop in Bethlehem

In 2015, a private jet landed at Newark.

On it was Carlos “Carlito” Fuente Jr., on his way to Bethlehem, to a small shop Franklin had opened two years earlier. They are standing on an Opus X rug, in Franklin’s own store.

He met Carlito in 1996. Thirty years later he still runs what he calls the first Fuente Friday in Bethlehem — and probably in Pennsylvania.

Still at the Fuente table.

In 2026 he was the officialcigar roller of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, representing Arturo Fuente alongside Carlos Fuente III. Three weeks later, the Indianapolis 500.

Franklin rolling at his table under the Arturo Fuente cloth
His table, dressed the way he dresses it: the boxes open, the press in the middle, and the Fuente cloth he has been given the right to put on it.
Official cigar roller, Formula 1 MiamiOfficial cigar roller, Formula 1 MiamiMiami Gardens, FL · May 2026Hublot, at Geneva Seal in ChicagoHublot, at Geneva Seal in ChicagoChicago, IL · Jun 2025Lycoming County Cigar FestLycoming County Cigar FestLycoming County, PA · Sep 2025The Indy 500 weekend, at a private auto clubThe Indy 500 weekend, at a private auto clubIndianapolis, IN · May 2026Eric Church’s band, at Saratoga Performing Arts CenterEric Church’s band, at Saratoga Performing Arts CenterSaratoga Springs, NY · Aug 2023Hublot and Fuente, Night of Champions, Las VegasHublot and Fuente, Night of Champions, Las VegasLas Vegas, NV · May 2019An invitation from Woodford ReserveAn invitation from Woodford ReserveOhio · May 2024A Hublot evening, in black tieA Hublot evening, in black tieDec 2019

What six minutes look like.

The leaf goes in, the chaveta comes down, the press closes. Your guests watch this happen at arm’s length, and then they smoke what they just saw made.

Filmed in 4K at an event, 2025. He rolls; the room keeps talking.

A master roller’s hands finishing a cigar on the table

The same hands. Your event.

The table he learned at in Santiago is the table he brings to a wedding in New Jersey, a boardroom in Manhattan, or a club in Connecticut.

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