LVMH Watch Week: The Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton
The revived Daniel Roth brand breaks new ground, with a window on time.
Considering Daniel Roth’s obvious interest in visual depth and the celebration of mechanics, as evidenced in watches like the original C187 Tourbillon and the new Daniel Roth watch it inspired – it is perhaps surprising that he never openworked his Extra Plat model. You can of course speculate on why he didn’t; the explanations might include the fact that he was concerned to develop a range of models and complications, and that producing an openworked version of the movements he was using – the F. Piguet calibers 71 and 21 – were thanks to their extra thin dimensions, especially difficult to skeletonize (though undoubtedly if Roth had wanted to do it, it was well within his abilities as a watchmaker). For whatever reason, an original skeletonized Extra Plat was never made, and so the new Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton represents the first Daniel Roth model from the new(ish) company, which departs significantly from all the original Daniel Roth production.
The first of the new Daniel Roth Extra Plat watches, feature the hand wound movement, caliber DR002, which is 31mm x 28mm x 3.1mm. The new skeletonized movement is caliber DR002SR, and it’s exactly the same size (as you would expect) as the non-skeletonized version. However, a look at the Daniel Roth Extra Plat, and at the DR002, shows some major differences between the two movements as well.
The placement of the major active components remains unchanged, with the mainspring barrel at 12:00 as it is in the non-skeletonized Extra Plat, and the crown wheel and keyless works, train wheels, and balance all in their original locations. What has changed quite dramatically is the design of the bridgework. To some extent, the original outline of the rachet wheel and mainspring barrel bridge is the same (albeit with sharper transitions and a number of sharp internal bevels) but the single plate for the third, fourth, and escape wheels has been replaced by three separate finger bridges. That these are a development from a single bridge can be seen in the fact that they are actually a single bridge continuously across the bases of the three finger bridges, with three screws securing the triple/single bridge in place (one more screw than is used in the corresponding bridge in the DR002).
The entire movement is made of the same 5N rose gold as the case, and it has been lavishly openworked, with a great many sharp inner corners. Typically nowadays, the openworking of a movement is done with CNC and/or wire erosion machines used to create the voids in the metal, with hand burnishing used to finish the anglage and especially to create a crisp transition in the inner corners. It is possible, as has become more common knowledge recently in enthusiast circles, to come close to creating a sharp inner corner with a CNC machine or wire erosion machine but in most cases, for a really satisfactory result, hand finishing with finer and finer polishing paper, and then diamond past on a sharpened gential pithwood stick, is still necessary for an acceptable haute horlogerie finish.
The results I think are quite beautiful and as always, La Fabrique du Temps has taken obvious pains in the specifics, particularly in ensuring that the bridge layout was optimized from DR002 to DR002SR to offer the best composition for openworking.
Two of the basic criteria for evaluating an openworked watch, are the degree to which it has been made transparent, and the degree to which the openworking seems a natural evolution of the movement architecture, rather than something that’s been imposed on it. Thanks to considerable care in the movement redesign, the newest and most original Daniel Roth from the new Daniel Roth company, feels like a natural and even inevitable extension of everything that’s come before – both old and new.
The Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton: case, rose gold, 38.6mm x 35.5mm x 6.9mm, 30M water resistance, sapphire crystals front and back, and blued steel hour and minute hands. Movement, caliber DR002SR, developed and assembled at La Fabrique du Temps, 31mm x 28mm x 3.1mm, running in 21 jewels at 28,800 vph; 65 hour power reserve. Price, CHF 85,000.
The 1916 Company is proud to be an authorized retailer for Daniel Roth timepieces. For current US pricing and availability, contact us.