DANIEL ROTH Extra Plat Souscription DBBE01A1

The DANIEL ROTH revival continues with Extra Plat Souscription.

Drawing a historical parallel with the brand’s origins in the 1990s, the second model presented by DANIEL ROTH is a dress watch with only two hands. Like the Tourbillon Souscription, the Extra Plat Souscription was developed and produced by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton.

The epitome of functional elegance, the concept of an ultra-thin dress watch had long been a personal favorite of Mr. Daniel Roth. After sketching its contours in the 1980s, Mr. Roth introduced the original Extra Plat in 1990, a year after founding his brand with the Tourbillon C187.

Today, DANIEL ROTH pays tribute to its roots and its founder with the Extra Plat Souscription. Echoing the model established by the Tourbillon Souscription, the Extra Plat Souscription is faithful to the original 1990s model in terms of style and craftsmanship, but entirely new in terms of mechanics, with the DR002 movement that has been developed especially for the watch.

“Having known Daniel for many years, we wanted to remain faithful to his philosophy and vision of watchmaking,” say Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, founders of La Fabrique du Temps.

The Extra Plat Souscription is a simple two-hand watch, but executed to the highest aesthetic and technical standards, just as Daniel would have done, but inside the Manufacture”.

A tribute to the original

Continuing the distinctive style of the Tourbillon Souscription, the Extra Plat Souscription is presented in an 18-carat yellow gold case matched with an 18-carat yellow gold dial decorated with hand-crafted clou de Paris guilloché.

Faithful to the elegant shape of the original models from the 1990s, the Extra Plat Souscription has the same dimensions as the Tourbillon Souscription – the case measures 35.5 mm wide and 38.6 mm long. However, the case is thinner than the Tourbillon Souscription, at 7.70 mm high, due to the ultra-thin DR002 movement it houses and its thickness of just 3.1 mm.

The case design remains faithful to the original, but has been slightly reworked to respect DANIEL ROTH’s visual codes. The 18-carat yellow gold case retains the iconic shape of the double ellipse, but with a godron perfectly centered along its contour for a balanced profile. At the same time, the lugs have been delicately rounded for visual consistency and curved downwards for improved ergonomics.

Not only is the case designed in the same style as the original, it is also assembled using traditional methods. Each of the lugs is produced as a separate component, which is then carefully welded to the case middle, by hand and one by one.

Equally traditional, the guilloché dial is crafted using time-honoured methods. Each dial is made up of two parts, the base and an applied chapter ring, both in solid 18-carat yellow gold and turned by hand on antique machines restored in La Fabrique du Temps’ guilloché workshop.

The clou de Paris motif on the dial base is guilloché on a hand-operated straight-line machine dating from circa 1935, while the jump fillet border on the base and chapter ring is applied using a machine dating from circa 1850. Both dial components are turned by a single craftsman at La Fabrique du Temps.

at La Fabrique du Temps, in a painstaking process that takes 10 hours per dial, just for the guillochage.

Each dial also features a detail that only a keen observer will notice: the printing on the dial, from the Roman numerals to the serial number, is a deep, rich blue that echoes the color of the heat-blued hour and minute hands.

A brand-new caliber

The second movement designed by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton for DANIEL ROTH, the DR002 is intended to honor both Mr. Daniel Roth himself and Swiss Haute Horlogerie. The DR002 takes up the distinctive visual style of the DR001 in the Tourbillon Souscription, but has been developed from scratch for the Extra Plat Souscription.

The DR002 is a shaped movement that takes up the shape of the case’s double ellipse. Despite its unconventional shape, the caliber features all the characteristics of traditional high-end watchmaking, both in terms of construction and decoration. Inspired by classical movements, the flowing outline of the bridges is finished with rounded, polished bevels called anglage, which also incorporate acute angles that are only possible with skilled artisan finishing.

“We understand Daniel’s devotion to high-end traditional watchmaking, both as friends and as watchmakers, and so we wanted to respect his approach when we built the DR002,” explain Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, ”Therefore, we made sure that it had the characteristics of traditional haute horlogerie, such as the click of the steel winding bar for the barrel.”

Attention was paid not only to the aesthetics of the caliber, but also to tactile feel. The winding pawl, for example, is a unique, fully satin-finished piece. Not only does it lend visual beauty to the DR002, it is also responsible for the precise and gratifying sensation of winding the movement.

Despite the movement’s classicism, the technical underpinnings of the DR002 are sophisticated. The 4 Hz balance, for example, is free-sprung and comprises four arms, each with a variable inertia weight for regulation – promising superior, stable chronometry over extended periods. The unique large spring offers a 65-hour power reserve, equivalent to three days or a weekend. The undeniable beauty of the DR002 is concealed beneath an 18-carat yellow gold caseback, just as the caliber was in the Tourbillon Souscription. This act

This discretion is once again a tribute to the past: the original Extra Plat watches also featured a solid caseback.

The Extra Plat Souscription is a limited edition of 20 pieces, with deliveries starting in January 2025. It will be followed by an Extra Plat model, which will join the DANIEL ROTH catalog.