A Legendary, Stunning Dress Watch Is Back After 30 Years

At its highest level, watchmaking still functions like it did 200 years ago, with small groups of highly skilled craftspeople blending art and engineering in magnificently intricate little mechanisms.

Daniel Roth founded his eponymous brand in 1989 after making a name for himself designing watches for Breguet. It was an independent operation where his horological genius was given space to craft some of the most beautiful dress watches ever seen.

Daniel Roth

As is so often the case, Roth’s creative brilliance did not extend to business, and he was forced to sell his company, which changed hands a couple of times before shuttering.

In 2023, LVMH revived the legendary brand with the limited edition Tourbillon Souscription, followed by two more limited releases. Now, Daniel Roth is releasing its first regular production model under the French luxury conglomerate.

Daniel Roth

It is a reproduction of the Extra Plat, initially released by Roth in 1989, done in rose gold with a calf skin leather strap. It mirrors a yellow gold reference released in January 2025, but rather than being limited to 20 units, it is establishing a permanent collection.

Old old fashioned

The dial on the Extra Plat is so classical that it resembles the face of a nineteenth-century grandfather clock more than a wristwatch. Roth’s case design continues the theme with flat sides, rounded ends and a layered, rounded bezel that mimics the window frame of an old clock.

Daniel Roth

The dial is assembled in two parts. A white gold plate undergoes a technique called guilloche en ligne, which creates vertical scoring like a pinstripe pattern.

On top of that, a rose gold chapter ring with concentric hand-etched tracks sunken below black Roman numeral hour markers is placed. Tiny dots form a minute track on the outer ring, each hour marked by a slightly larger dot.

Daniel Roth

The hands are made of blackened steel, formed in a simple arrow shape with no counterbalance, another callback to 19-century clockmaking.

Beauty within

As is often the case at the top tiers of watchmaking, the movement finishing is just as important as the case and dial finishing for Daniel Roth.

Daniel Roth

LVMH has recruited two master watchmakers, Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, to design and oversee ever aspect of the resurrected Daniel Roth at the corporation’s La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton facility.

The manually wound caliber DR002 makes its second appearance, displaying two different layers of intricate hand-applied brushing through a full sapphire crystal display back. It is enough to make you want to wear the watch upside down.

Daniel Roth

LVMH’s expanding market share of the watch industry has been met with mixed reviews. However, the dedication to preserving watchmaking in its purest form is evident with the limited Daniel Roth releases we’ve seen thus far.

For those who don’t have half a million dollars to spare, the Extra Plat is tantamount to viewing fine art. Even if we can’t afford the real thing, it’s nice to know it is still being made.

Availability and pricing

The Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold is available now from Daniel Roth for $49,000 CHF, which exchanges to approximately $58,950 as of this writing.

Even though the watch is a regular production model, it is still laborious and time-consuming to produce, meaning that stock will be limited, and finding a dealer to supply one will be challenging.

Daniel Roth

Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold

Specs

Case Size	35mm
Movement	Daniel Roth caliber DR002 hand-wound
Water Resistance	30m

• $58,950 at Daniel Roth

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