Just released is Daniel Roth’s second modern timepiece product, the Tourbillon Rose Gold reference DAAD01A1. Under ownership by LVMH and produced by the luxury group’s La Fabrique du Temps factory in Geneva, Switzerland, the Daniel Roth brand of today is a spiritual continuation of the brand that the company’s namesake began in the late 1980s. LVMH relaunched Daniel Roth in early 2024 with the limited edition of 20 pieces Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription in 18k yellow gold. Those first 20 pieces are each individually numbered “1-20” and these rose gold variants will be individually serialized with a production that begins with the number “21.” While these Tourbillon Rose Gold watches are not limited editions, Daniel Roth has stated it won’t produce more than 50 watches in total per year.
In all but a handful of respects, the Tourbillon Rose Gold is the same watch as the Tourbillon Souscription in yellow gold. There are three primary visual differences. The first, of course, is the use of 18k rose versus 18k yellow gold for the iconic “double eclipse” shaped case. The case is 35.5mm wide and 38.6mm long (not including the lugs). It is also water resistant to 30 meters. The second difference between the two watches is the caseback. Going with tradition to look like original Daniel Roth watches, the Tourbillon Souscription has a solid caseback. The Tourbillon Rose Gold, on the other hand, has a sapphire crystal display caseback with a view of the really lovely in-house manually wound movement. I have included pictures of both the Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription and the Tourbillon Rose Gold watches so you can see how the different caseback styles look.
The final difference between the two watches is the guilloche engraving style on the face of the watch along the sides of the dial. This Tourbillon Rose Gold uses a decorative pattern that Daniel Roth calls ligne guilloché, which makes sense given that the pattern results in a series of vertical lines. Otherwise, the first and second modern Daniel Roth watches are a continuation of the same theme: a contemporary recreation of Daniel Roth’s C187 Tourbillon watches. The new Daniel Roth watches were created by La Fabrique du Temps watch designer (who also designs Louis Vuitton watches) Matthieu Hegi, and the movements were created by La Fabrique du Temps co-founders and current managers Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas. Both of whom knew and worked with Mr. Daniel Roth himself. They also worked with the Daniel Roth brand when it was owned by Bulgari, which itself was later acquired by LVMH.
The beautifully architected and decorated mechanical movement inside of the Tourbillon Rose Gold is known as the Daniel Roth caliber DR001. The movement uses 206 parts and operates at 3Hz with a power reserve of 80 hours. The front of the watch includes an off-centered display for the hours and minutes, with an exposed tourbillon cage below it. Over the cage is a distinctive three-sided hand that uses a three-level scale to indicate the running seconds. A major selling point of this watch is not innovation of sheer complexity, but rather beauty of form and excellence in execution. The movement is carefully hand-decorated and minute detailing and decoration is a specialty that the watchmakers and artisans at La Fabrique du Temps do very well.
Attached to the petite case is a 20mm wide tapering brown calfskin leather strap. The watch might be small, but it is very comfortable and handsome on the wrist. Though I would recommend it while wearing sleeves, else it might look a bit misplaced as this watch exudes formality and elegance as opposed to casual luxury. Just a beautiful watch that also benefits from being avant-garde enough to not suit all tastes. Prices for the non-limited edition but low, serialized production Daniel Roth Tourbillon Rose Gold reference DAAD01A1 watch is CHF 155,000. Learn more at the Daniel Roth website.
