It has been almost a year since LVMH revealed it had acquired the rights to Daniel Roth’s intellectual property.
The brand is being revived under the stewardship of Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique Du Temps and the watch world was told last year that its first commercial move would be to relaunch its Tourbillon, first produced by Mr Roth in 1989, in its distinctive double ellipse case.
Visitors to Dubai Watch Week last November were shown historic watches from the Daniel Roth archive, but this week in Miami, the world’s press were shown the first prototype to emerge from La Fabrique Du Temp.
There will be 20 of the new Tourbillon Souscription watches made, all pre-sold under the subscription model popularized by F.P. Journe, and scheduled for delivery to clients in the coming few months.
Established as an eponymous business in 1988, Daniel Roth was a pioneer of independent watchmaking at a time before the genre was even recognized as historically important.
Prior to founding his own brand, Mr Roth was instrumental in breathing new life into the modern-day Breguet marque where his final project was to create the brand’s first-ever tourbillon wristwatch.
He took that experience into his own atelier after going it alone.
The first Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription watch from the la Fabrique Du Temps era is a Souscription Tourbillon that uses an in-house manufacture calibre DR001 produced by Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini – both master watchmakers who are personally overseeing the creation of each Daniel Roth timepiece.
On the movement, Mr Navas explains: “Our vision for Daniel Roth is to respect the brand’s history while also leveraging some of the concepts and savoir faire that Enrico and myself have accumulated in our careers.”
Mr Barbasini adds: “Respecting the origins of the brand and the craftsmanship of its foundational pieces is especially important for us, since we are both long-time friends of Daniel.
“Many of us look up to Daniel as an important figure in the industry who spearheaded contemporary independent watchmaking.”
The new Tourbillon Souscription stays true to the original design, but has been modernized with its all-new in-house calibre, with 80 hour power reserve, and a solid gold, guilloche dial.
Its 18ct yellow gold double ellipse case has redesigned lugs and, at 9.2mm tall, is 2mm thinner than the 1989 original.
It is worn on a brown calfskin leather strap and its subscription run of 20 watches were sold for CHF 140,000, excluding taxes.