After more than a year of rumours, LVMH finally confirmed the long expected with its February announcement of the relaunch of Daniel Roth. And now the brand officially debuts its inaugural watch, the Tourbillon Souscription.

Modelled on the Daniel Roth tourbillon of 1988, the Tourbillon Souscription is almost a remake of the original from thirty-five years ago. It retains the same styling characterised by a double-ellipse case and one-minute tourbillon at six, but is entirely new in terms of mechanics: inside is a brand-new mechanical movement developed by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton (LFT).

Initial thoughts

I got in touch with Daniel Roth and his wife Nicolas after learning of the brand’s revival. They indicated their approval of the project. Their approval will probably have little impact on the new watches since they aren’t involved in the brand’s comeback, but it is certainly good to know.

Being a homage to the brand’s origins, the Tourbillon Souscription is a good opening act in its revival. But for the resurrected brand to have longevity and relevance, it would have to do more than remakes; it will have to create new and original products that channel the spirit of the originals, a point I made in my earlier editorial.

A Daniel Roth tourbillon from the 1990s

The Tourbillon Souscription is clearly inspired by the original watches of the 1990s. It retains the same dimensions and almost all the details, right down to the hobnail guilloche dial. In fact, it’s close enough to the original that the two are probably indistinguishable at a distance, at least to casual observers.

But enough has been changed that the keenest eyes will instantly recognise this as a modern-day watch, most obviously with the champagne dial, a colour that was never available with the originals.

Another tweak is the revised typography on the dial, which I am not a fan of. Although the markings on the dial are identical to that on the original, they are now in a sans serif font that seems at odds with the classical nature of the design. According to a brand insider, the modern font was chosen to reflect the contemporary nature of the Tourbillon Souscription. While I can appreciate the reasoning, I think it looks out of place.

The Tourbillon Souscription will cost CHF140,000 before taxes – fair considering the quality and proprietary movement. And that is also true when comparing it to comparable offerings on the market today. However, the price still almost double the most recent auction results for a 1990s Daniel Roth tourbillon (which is arguably valued too strongly today considering its fairly ordinary Lemania movement).

Although I have yet to see the prototype of the Tourbillon Souscription, I am sure it will feel exactly the same as an original since both are practically the same size.

More importantly, I am confident that the quality of execution is as good as that of the original, perhaps even slightly better. The team at LFT is talented and also enjoys the advances in manufacturing and finishing that have accumulated in the three decades since Mr Roth founded his brand.

Though hidden behind the case back, the DR001 movement inside has the details that one would expect from LFT, which was founded by Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini. The two played a crucial role in the Laurent Ferrier tourbillon, one of the better high-end tourbillon movements of recent years, so they clearly have what to takes to create a fine movement.

And from a philosophical standpoint, the Tourbillon Souscription might be even more “independent watchmaking” in terms of mechanics despite LFT being a subsidiary of Louis Vuitton. That’s because the calibre inside is unique to Daniel Roth, whereas the original Daniel Roth watches relied on either stock or lightly modified Lemania calibres.

The opening act

A brand that enjoyed its heyday in the 1990s, Daniel Roth was successful then because of its style and complications, most notably the tourbillon, of which several hundred were made. After the brand parted from its namesake founder due to financial distress, it bounced around several owners, before finding its (likely) permanent home at LFT, the complications factory owned by Louis Vuitton.

The revived brand’s opening act is the Tourbillon Souscription, which according to the brand is based on the C187, a double-faced tourbillon with power reserve and date indicators on its back, the brand’s very first model of 1988. Like the early examples of the C187, the Tourbillon Souscription has a hobnail guilloche dial, a motif that was later replaced by vertical fluting.

That said, the Tourbillon Souscription is single faced with a solid back. That means it’s actually remake of the less common single-faced tourbillon of the 1990s, the C186.

The Tourbillon Souscription measures 38.6 mm by 35.5 mm on its front, the same as the classic Daniel Roth case, but stands just 9.2 mm high, thinner than the C187 and about the same as the C186 single-face tourbillon.

But unlike any of the originals, the Tourbillon Souscription has a champagne-tone dial, something that was not available in the original series. Interestingly, it is produced by Kari Voutilainen’s workshop, the same location that produces Voutilainen watches (as opposed to Comblemine, the dial maker owned by Voutilainen).

As a result, the dial connects the past and present of independent watchmaking: it is an element of contemporary independent watchmaking inside a watch that pays tribute to a much earlier era of the same genre.

As it was with the original, the tourbillon cage at six o’clock is fitted with a three-armed seconds hand that is read in tandem with the triple-scale for the seconds. Although the tourbillon regulator largely preserves the aesthetics of the original, it is noticeably different. Most apparent is the fact that the tourbillon now has a lower profile, with the upper cage sitting on the same plane as the seconds scale.

Inside is the DR001 developed by LFT, the complications specialist that is responsible for Louis Vuitton’s increasingly impressive stable of complicated watches.

Because the cofounders of LFT, Messrs Navas and Barbasini, were both instrumental in conceiving the Laurent Ferrier LF619 tourbillon movement, it is perhaps unsurprising that the DR001 shares a few of the LF619’s features. One is the  generous 80-hour power reserve, and another is the mirror-polished linear winding click for the barrel ratchet wheel.

The Tourbillon Souscription will be sold on a “subscription” basis, meaning that buyers will have to pay a deposit upon order confirmation, while the balance is due upon delivery in early 2024. The watches will be available at a handful of retailers around the world.

Key facts and price

Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription
Ref. DR0011YG-01

Diameter: 38.6 mm by 35.5 mm
Height: 9.2 mm
Material: 18K yellow gold 3N
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: 30 m

Movement: DR001
Features: Hours, minutes, seconds, and a one-minute tourbillon
Frequency: 21,600 beats per hour (3 Hz)
Winding: Manual winding
Power reserve: 80 hours

Strap: Calfskin strap with pin buckle

Limited edition: 20 pieces 
Availability: Only available through selected retail partners of Daniel Roth via subscription with delivery by early 2024
Price: CHF140,000 excluding taxes

For more, visit Daniel-roth.ch.

The news concerning a revival of Daniel Roth was been circulating in Geneva and Paris for over a year but it is now official. LVMH just announced Daniel Roth “will be run as an independent brand, with guidance and incubation from La Fabrique Du Temps Louis Vuitton, as of February 2023.”

Once an independent brand run by its namesake founder, Daniel Roth had its heyday in the mid-1990s when classical complications with Breguet styling were the “in” thing with collectors. Due to Mr Roth’s personal and financial struggles, the brand then changed hands several times before ending up with Bulgari over a decade ago.

Daniel Roth had been on ice for several years after a few half-hearted attempts by the Italian jeweller to do something with the brand. No doubt spurred by the renewed interest in independent watchmaking, LVMH has spun off Daniel Roth and attached it to La Fabrique du Temps (LFDT), the complications and movement factory owned by Louis Vuitton (and word has it that the same will soon be done with Gerald Genta, once the sister brand of Daniel Roth).

One of the less successful Bulgari-Daniel Roth offerings, a “Chronosprint” made for the All Blacks, New Zealand’s rugby team

Revived with resources

The return of the brand is the brainchild of Jean Arnault, the Director of Marketing and Development at Louis Vuitton’s watch division. While Mr Arnault is best known as being the youngest son of LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault, the younger Arnault is a collector of independent watchmaking himself according to industry insiders.

His personal interest in this relatively niche genre of watchmaking explains LVMH’s interest in reviving a brand so tiny it will have no impact on the luxury conglomerate’s results, even in the long term. More importantly, Mr Arnault’s involvement bodes well for the brand as it should ensure it has the resources it needs to develop, despite its modest size.

That said, luxury conglomerates do not have a good track record in developing artisanal brands, often as a matter of institutional expertise and culture. Breguet, for instance, has lost some lustre as part of the Swatch Group. There are of course exceptions, the most obvious being F.P. Journe. Chanel has a sizeable minority stake and a seat on its board, but Francois-Paul Journe remains absolutely sovereign, so in practice the brand is still a one-man show.

History should rhyme

For Daniel Roth specifically, the execution of the revival will be crucial. The inaugural watch of the relaunched brand will be a “20-piece souscription series”, presumably a tourbillon that channels the look and feel of the 1990s original. As the opening act of the revived marque, this homage to the past makes sense. And it will probably sell out swiftly given the recent interest in niche independent brands, particularly from late-to-the-game “investors” seeking the next big thing.

A Daniel Roth tourbillon powered by a Lemania calibre that was modified to incorporate a power reserve and date on the reverse

The past, however, is an insufficient guide for success today. Daniel Roth’s original watches were elegant creations that had a unique aesthetic – Breguet inspired but original – but 30 years on the aesthetic is still elegant but no longer as unique. That’s because independent watchmaking has expanded in diversity and scale, and also because the Breguet name no longer has the same aura due to the low profile of the modern-day Breguet brand.

Similarly, the originals had finely finished movements that were entirely outsourced (as were the cases and dials). Mr Roth himself was largely concerned with the construction of complication modules that were added to the base movements, which were mostly Lemania and finished at Lemania or by specialists. Doing the same today, namely turning to a specialist for a customised but off-the-shelf movement, is inadequate to set the brand apart. Many have tried and failed, which is why specialists like Chronode and Voutilainen are still in business, while various independent brands have gone under.

Seeking finesse in the details

Fortunately, parking Daniel Roth with LFDT gives the brand the expertise of the team at the Geneva manufacture. Still led by founders Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, LFDT is responsible for all of Louis Vuitton’s impressive stable of complications, including the gothic Carpe Diem repeater with automaton and its signature Spin Time jump hours.

The complications developed for Louis Vuitton are probably too extravagant for a brand with a classical spirit as Daniel Roth hopes to be. But earlier in their career at LFDT before the Louis Vuitton takeover, Messrs Navas and Barbasini proved the classical face of their watchmaking by constructing the tourbillon and automatic micro-rotor movements for Laurent Ferrier.

The two movements were gorgeous in their own way (a quality Laurent Ferrier has arguably lost since then as its later movements were created with a budget in mind). The tourbillon channeled the spirit of observatory tourbillon movements once made for pocket watches, while the micro-rotor calibre took a novel, modern approach that nonetheless incorporated numerous classical elements.

The Laurent Ferrier tourbillon movement

But the two movements were a collaboration between Messrs Navas and Barbasini as well as Laurent Ferrier, who in his early career was a constructor at Patek Philippe. Whether Messrs Navas and Barbasini, along with their team at LFDT, can again capture a similar aesthetic and mechanical refinement in their upcoming Daniel Roth movements will certainly be worth watching.

For updates on the revived brand, visit Daniel-roth.ch.

Phillips recently opened its second selling exhibition in Hong Kong, with over 100 watches up for sale, from affordable vintage timepieces to high-end modern complications.

It’s a big selection but a handful of items stood out, being personal favourites, including a white gold Richard Lange Pour le Merite by A. Lange & Söhne and an impressive Cartier Mystery Clock.

One value proposition is the Patek Philippe ref. 3970EP chronograph with perpetual calendar, here in platinum with a black dial featuring baton indices.

The ref. 3970 was preceded by a watch that is sought after and exceptionally valuable, the ref. 2499, and succeeded by another desirable watch that is pricey but not quite as valuable, the ref. 5970. But the ref. 3970 itself is less costly, and relative to its cousins, strong value for money.

That’s due to the long spell it was in production, as well as the small case diameter of 36mm.

But it’s still a Patek Philippe chronograph with perpetual calendar, and part of a historically important series of timepieces. And it’s powered by the most impressive iteration of the Lemania 2320 movement, which was used by many brands but most heavily improved by Patek Philippe.

As later generation 3970s go, the platinum version is one of the least common, and this example is well preserved, with all the hallmarks and case details still fresh. It’s also complete with the original boxes and certificate that confirms the watch left the factory with this dial.

The ref. 3970EP is priced at 950,000 Hong Kong dollars, or about US$121,000. It’s towards the upper limit in the range this watch usually goes for, but the watch is crisp and complete, and the price is negotiable.

And the final pick isn’t a value proposition but is a special version of a highly regarded watch, the Voutilainen Vingt-8 in titanium.

One of just 10 made, and numbered as such on the back which is unusual for Voutilainen, this Vingt-8 has a mirror polished titanium case with the brand’s signature teardrop lugs.

This is numbered “10/10”.

The dial is dark grey and finished with three different types of guilloche, and fitted with Voutilainen’s signature hands.

But what makes it different from most Voutilainen watches (that have Arabic or Roman numerals) are the baton hour markers. Like the hands the hour markers are finished in a bright, matte silver, and give the watch a distinctly more modern look.

The movement is the standard cal. 28 – wonderfully decorated and characterised by an oversized balance wheel and double escape wheels.

The Vingt-8 is complete with boxes and papers, and is priced at 748,000 Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to US$95,000.

Exhibition details

The Hong Kong Watches Selling Exhibition: II takes place from March 25 to April 2, and is open daily from 10am-6pm.

Phillips
14/F, St. George’s Building
2 Ice House Street
Central, Hong Kong

Before many of today’s famous names in independent watchmaking became famous, there was Daniel Roth. Mr Roth has been a watchmaker – he makes watches – for half a century. In fact, 2017 is the 50^th anniversary of Mr Roth’s arrival in Switzerland to start his watchmaking career in the halcyon days before the Quartz Crisis.

Many frigid winters have passed since Mr Roth arrived in the Vallée de Joux. While the industry has changed drastically, not much has changed in the landscape, and neither has the manner in which Mr Roth makes watches.

Ups and downs, and up again

Now 72 years old, Mr Roth has enjoyed a career that spanned the modern watch industry, from the bleak days of the 1970s to its 21^st century renaissance. He went from being an employee of a luxury group to a solo watchmaker, and repeating the cycle once over.

But he was not just a bit player; Mr Roth was a crucial figure in establishing Breguet and movement maker Nouvelle Lemania. And by extension he was responsible for many of the complicated movements Lemania supplied to numerous brands from the 1990s to mid 2000s.

 Though Mr Roth himself was born in Nice, his forebears were watchmakers in Switzerland. It was Mr Roth’s grandfather who moved the family to the south of France for the sun, setting up a watch repair shop where a young Daniel Roth apprenticed. After Mr Roth completed his basic watchmaking education in Nice, he moved to the cradle of Swiss watchmaking, the poetically named Vallée de Joux, in 1967.

There he briefly worked for Jaeger-LeCoultre, then primarily a supplier of thin and complicated movements rather than branded watches. His watchmaking was interrupted by a short stint in the military, after which he landed at Audemars Piguet. He fondly describes Audemars Piguet then as a smallish company, with just several dozen employees and familial atmosphere, dedicated to making quality, artisanal timepieces.

Just as Mr Roth was starting his career in Switzerland, the storied firm of Breguet in Paris was foundering. By then the firm was owned by George Brown, the descendent of an English watchmaker who had taken over the business when Abraham-Louis Breguet’s heirs were unable to.

The late, great English watchmaker George Daniels mentioned the firm his autobiography, All in Good Time: Reflections of a Watchmaker, describing the Breguet workshop in the 1960s as “rather shaky” with “no skilled watchmaker on the premises… [with only] one employee very competent at repairing”.

So in 1970, Parisian jeweller Chaumet acquired Breguet, with the hopes of restoring the name to its former lustre. The jeweller was run by Jacques and Pierre Chaumet, brothers who were the ninth generation of the family that once counted Napoleon and Queen Victoria as patrons. The millionaire siblings moved Breguet to Switzerland, siting it in L’Orient, one of the many small towns in the Vallée de Joux. They put Chaumet executive Francois Bodet in charge, who in turn recruited Mr Roth.

Mr Roth’s peculiar manner of wearing a watch is a lifelong habit, developed to allow him to read the time while working

The 15 years he spent at Breguet were halcyon days, according to Mr Roth. Chaumet in those days was arguably a grander name than Cartier, with princes and potentates of the day spending lavishly at its Place Vendome store.

Mr Roth describes the Chaumet brothers as men of refined taste who gave him free rein to build beautiful watches, so build beautiful watches he did. Together with Mr Bodet the pair created what is now the quintessential Breguet look of today: slim, subtly ornate, and perhaps more formal than most of the Breguet wristwatches that came before.

Relying on Breguet’s most important pocket watches for inspiration, Mr Roth set about building complicated wristwatches – remember this was taking place in the 1970s, the dark days of the Quartz Crisis, at the same time hallowed names like Omega, Longines, Heuer and Vacheron Constantin were going under.

The very first watch Mr Roth created was the ref. 3130 with its distinctive asymmetric dial modelled on a Breguet perpetuelle pocket watch. He then designed a thin perpetual calendar wristwatch, equipped with a calendar mechanism based on one he had earlier designed for a pocket watch. He also constructed what is likely the first serially produced wristwatch tourbillon movement for movement maker Nouvelle Lemania in the mid 1980s, which was later installed in Breguet’s first tourbillon wristwatch that came to market in 1988.

With the Swiss watch industry almost a barren wasteland because of the Quartz Crisis, Mr Roth’s complicated, finely decorated watches were unusual and commercially successful. He had, as he puts it, the “audacity” to conceive a tourbillon wristwatch in the 1980s. Many of the prominent names of the day were clients of Breguet; Mr Roth mentions the late King Hassan II of Morocco as a loyal client.

But in 1987 the Chaumet brothers went spectacularly bust. The duo had pledged clients’ jewellery as collateral for loans to speculate in diamonds, a scheme that worked until diamond prices starting falling. With liabilities of over US$300m, more than three times their firm’s annual revenue, the company declared bankruptcy while the brothers were eventually sent to jail for fraud.

Chaumet was then sold to Investcorp, the Middle East private equity outfit that also once owned Tiffany & Co. and Vacheron Constantin. With his patrons gone, Mr Roth struck out on his own, establishing Daniel Roth SA in 1989 with backing from Siber Hegner, a Swiss trading house that distributed all manner of products all around the world, from silk and chemicals to machines and office supplies, and also luxury watches.

For a few short years Mr Roth contentedly produced high quality watches, mostly fitted with ebauches from Lemania, but with in the signature double-ellipse case he designed.

In the early 1990s he was one of the handful of practicing independent watchmakers, and also regarded as one of best. Amongst his first clients was John Asprey, who ran the famed jewellery and watch retailer in London, while being an early champion of independent watchmaking, having been an early backer of George Daniels and F.P. Journe. In the early 1990s, the Mr Asprey commissioned 24 tourbillon Daniel Roth wristwatches bearing the Asprey name – a remarkably substantial and important order in those days.

But Siber Hegner eventually decided the watch business wasn’t lucrative enough and pulled its financing, compelling Mr Roth to turn to The Hour Glass, the Singapore watch retailer that was one of his biggest accounts.

In 1994 The Hour Glass took control of Daniel Roth SA, seeking greater vertical integration in its business. While offering Mr Roth a solid financial footing, the combination put him in a corporate structure that would eventually turn out to be at odds with his creative desires.

Things came to a head in 1997, when the Asian Financial Crisis struck, putting The Hour Glass deep into the red. Not long after, the Singapore retailer threw in the towel and in the year 2000, sold Daniel Roth and another brand it owned, Gerald Genta, to Bulgari.

The Roman jeweller eventually turned the Daniel Roth name into a range of Bulgari watches with the trademark case design. While the name was the same, the watches were not.

The watchmaker returns

A man of gentle manner, Mr Roth returned once again to solo independent watchmaking. Being a solo watchmaker is “the top of happiness”, says Mr Roth.

He now makes just a single type of movement – specifically, a two-minute tourbillon regulator – offered in two case styles, under the Jean Daniel Nicolas name.

It is very much a family business; the company was named after his only son, Jean-Daniel, and wife, Nicolas. His constant companion for decades in the Vallee, she handles administrative and sales matters, while Jean-Daniel helps out with watchmaking.

The view from the kitchen

Mr Roth makes his watches inside a workshop located the second floor of his home in Le Sentier, one of several famous watchmaking towns in the Vallee de Joux. Facing the lake with its back to the mountains, the home is a comfortable but modestly furnished abode that has been home to the Roth family for 36 years.

He works as an artist sculpting in steel and gold, at his own pace, spending several hours each day slowly building the next tourbillon watch. Time, as he puts it, is not important for him. In 14 years he has finished a mere 26 tourbillon watches. Having averaged less than two watches a year, Mr Roth says he tries to produce three watches a year now. At the rate he is producing them, Mr Roth jokes that when he passes away, Jean-Daniel Nicolas watches will instantly become rare and valuable.

The workshop is almost stereotypical in its representation of Swiss watchmaking. Large windows let in generous amounts of sun, with the watchmaker’s bench and worktables sitting on wood floors. To one side sits a library – behind every good watchmaker is a good library – as well as Mr Roth’s archives of his past work.

Going through his past work give him visible pleasure. He grows animated when he discusses some of the watches he has built in the past, especially the early timepieces he designed for Breguet. He is also proud of the one-off creations commissioned by important collectors, including a series of Islamic calendar watches for the King of Morocco.

Some of the press clippings in the archives are poignant, showing Mr Roth in his heyday as watchmaker-in-chief of Daniel Roth SA, a picture of a corporate career that was never to be.

The Two-Minute Tourbillon

Examining the contents of the watchmaker’s bench and various tables reveal what he does – old school watchmaking solidly rooted in the traditions of the Vallee de Joux.

The tools for tempering and bluing steel

All that is needed, plus a good deal of patience, to construct a watch movement by hand

The watch and movement were designed – almost unbelievably in the age of computers – with a pen and paper. Mr Roth is of the opinion that this old fashioned method is how an old fashioned watchmaker should conduct himself, quipping, “If it is a challenge, then it is perfect for me.”

And the reason it is a tourbillon, as opposed to any other complication, is Mr Roth’s fondness for the complication, ever since his days at Breguet. Like many other watchmakers of his era, who were students of Abraham-Louis Breguet two centuries after he passed away, Mr Roth regards the tourbillon as the pinnacle of watchmaking.

He conceived the Jean-Daniel Nicolas watch as a two-minute tourbillon, giving it a period of revolution twice that of an ordinary tourbillon to differentiate it from others, and also for the owner to admire a more leisurely progression of the cage.

To him the tourbillon is an aesthetic creation, but also a functional one, providing visual indulgence for the wearer but also superior timekeeping, when properly regulated.

Mr Roth stills holds the opinion that a tourbillon, by virtue of what it is, should keep exemplary time. Consequently he tests each completed watch carefully over several days, laboriously logging the results on a sheet of paper. And for every watch that is returned for servicing, he does exactly the same.

Like Philippe Dufour, a neighbour living just three minutes away, Mr Roth relies on the etablissage system, which is how the Swiss watch industry functioned until in-house production became a badge of honour.

He buys the jewels, plates and bridges of the movement, as well as the case and dial from specialists, but produces the finer components – like the outrageously refined tourbillon bridge – himself.

And everything is then finished, unhurriedly and carefully as only an independent watchmaker can, by hand. The movement decoration is, like the fresh air of the Vallee de Joux, magnificent.

The Jean Daniel Nicolas tourbillon wristwatch costs about SFr180,000, give or take, a sum that is arguably reasonable, given that is, in essence, the culmination of a life dedicated to watchmaking.

The pride of a watchmaker

Mr Roth possesses a quietly resilient pride in the watches he has made, even those from decades ago. In an age where high-end watchmaking is a big business dominated by big companies, a craftsman’s pride like his is quaint and almost fantastic.

When a box is labelled “Louis-Elysée Piguet”, there must be treasure inside.

Mr Roth is working to add a perpetual calendar module of his own construction to a Piguet minute repeating ebauche…

Which he envisions to be a classical pocket watch.

On occasion Mr Roth still services the Daniel Roth watches he made in the early 1990s, during his first spell as a solo independent. He does it with care and at reasonable cost. He does it because he made those watches and he is still proud of them some thirty years later.

Mr Roth’s pride in his craft also manifests itself in the two-minute tourbillon. When asked why he does not make a time-only wristwatch, one would sell easily, in greater numbers and offer a better margin, he responds that such a watch is too simple. The hand-made and hand-finished tourbillon is his first and only love.

The decades past are now evident in Mr Roth, he walks slowly and sometimes gazes into the distance. But when he picks up a watch, he has the hands of a young watchmaker once again, fluid and deft, channelling a muscle memory of 50 years. Like the titular Ulysses in Tennyson’s eponymous poem, Mr Roth is not now of that strength which in old days moved Earth and heaven, but he is what he is – a watchmaker.