I have always adored the Ellipsocurvex case from Daniel Roth. That is the name of the shape you see on these pages, although the brand now prefers to use a name that came before that: Double Ellipse. Half rectangle, half circle, it is a unique take on what a shape or form watch can be. Usually, anyone venturing outside the square, rectangle, or tonneau verges on the freakish. And yet, there is something fascinating about the quintessential Daniel Roth case. By any metric, it is weird and magnificent at the same time. It is a defining trait of the Daniel Roth Tourbillon, more than any other because if you object to it, your desire will instantly disappear. So, for those of you who are still around, let me tell you how special this timepiece is in watchmaking history.

One of The First

Back in the 1980s, there were but a metaphorical handful of watchmakers still working on high complications. Even fewer worked on the tourbillon, which was a historical oddity at the time, and only a literal handful of pieces were manufactured each year. Just like his peers Franck Muller, François-Paul Journe or George Daniels, the watchmaker Daniel Roth created a tourbillon movement, one of the first of contemporary times, except this one was for the wrist. At the time, he was an employee of a manufacture called Nouvelle Lemania. This storied firm mainly made chronographs, especially for its biggest client, Breguet but also for everyone who used what are today known as Lemania calibres. That is the Breguet from before it was acquired by Swatch Group and therefore, a small outfit. In fact, both Breguet and Nouvelle Lemania were acquired by the Swatch Group. The brand still uses the Lemania chronograph calibre today, under the Caliber 558.1 moniker.

In 1988, Daniel Roth set up shop on his own and re-created a version of his tourbillon calibre, based on blanks provided by Nouvelle Lemania. He fitted it into a case he created himself, one so specific it helped establish his name as a brand. Not only that, but he dressed it with a dial that went on to become his other signature: an off-centered subdial for the hours and minutes, forced up at 12 o’clock by the large tourbillon at 6 o’clock. Flanking and crossing said tourbillon is a magnificent, delight-of-the-geeks, bridge, which is affixed to a guilloché surface, reminiscent of Breguet’s original style. Think of the Breguet reference 3350, for example. Needless to say, the seconds display was, and still is, quite unique. It is a combination of a three-pronged seconds hand, fitted on the tourbillon carriage, that swipes a triple-scale seconds sector. Daniel Roth, the watchmaker and the brand, was a pioneering member of the small independents squad dedicated to historical watchmaking that traded on the highest finishing standards. Today, these makers and the brands that bear their names are tantamount to royalty.

Return of the Curves

Nevertheless, in 2011, the brand was shelved. It had been acquired by Bulgari before it was bought up by LVMH. Bulgari was in fact after the manufacturing facilities that Daniel Roth shared with another famous, now-also-revived brand, Gérald Genta. Fast-forward to 2023, when Jean Arnault (of the famous Arnault family) claimed the brand for himself, as part of his tenure as head of the watches arm of Louis Vuitton. The new Daniel Roth’s first move was to make a “Souscription,” 20-units series in yellow gold. This effectively meant you had to apply first and receive the watch later, if you were lucky enough to have been chosen by the brand’s leadership. The second move is this rose gold version you see here that was introduced in the fall of this year.

On the face of it, today’s Daniel Roth Tourbillon is a cleaned-up and up-to-speed variation of the 1990s version. Of course, the movement had to change, the original having become unavailable from the Breguet Manufacture, or Lemania for that matter. So, the manufacturing arm of Louis Vuitton, La Fabrique du Temps, led by horological legends Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, gave it a new engine that they christened calibre DR001. On the outside, i.e. the visible parts of the tourbillon, it has the same appearance as the original. On the inside, it is a completely new thing that is a full 2mm thinner, with 80 hours of power reserve, several gold chatons and gorgeous finishing touches.

The case dimensions have slightly changed and the details are neater, but the essence is still here. Part of that is the mirror-polished long tourbillon bridge resting on pillars, which is the right kind of fan service. Another step in the right direction is the guilloché work, applied on the rose gold dial, which is also designed to revive nostalgia. The last one is something that pictures cannot show and that words cannot properly express: the singular pleasure in putting this watch on. It is unlike anything else out there, and given the size of today’s global offering, that is saying something.

This article first appeared in WOW’s Legacy Issue #75

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