That New Daniel Roth Watch? Yeah, It’s Beautiful

I didn’t expect to spend as much time with it as I did. Skeleton watches usually reward brief attention. You admire the architecture, register the effort involved, and move on. During LVMH Watch Week, though, I kept finding myself returning to Daniel Roth’s Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton for a different reason. 

It wasn’t about studying it or trying to decode what I was seeing. The watch has a calming quality that slows your eyes down and lets the mechanics settle into view rather than demand focus, which is not something skeletonized watches are particularly known for.

That reaction matters, because Daniel Roth has always occupied a very specific lane in watchmaking. Roth himself is one of the quieter architects of modern independent horology, a watchmaker whose ideas helped shape an entire generation without ever chasing spectacle. 

His double-ellipse cases, restrained dials, and idiosyncratic complications produced watches collectors still return to decades later, not out of nostalgia or rarity, but because the decisions behind them continue to feel resolved. The watches hold up because they were never trying to impress in the first place.

When LVMH brought the brand back, skepticism felt natural. Large groups do not always move comfortably inside small, obsessive worlds, especially ones built on proportion, patience, and taste. Daniel Roth’s revival has followed a different path. The watches have been rebuilt slowly, with a clear respect for the original language of the brand and a noticeable reluctance to modernize for the sake of relevance. 

Movements are developed and assembled at La Fabrique du Temps, LVMH’s high-watchmaking atelier led by Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, two of the most respected complication specialists working within the group today. When dials are present, they are executed with Kari Voutilainen, a collaboration that quietly signals the level of seriousness behind the project. This is not heritage theater. It is infrastructure being put to careful use.

The Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton feels like the first genuine expansion of that foundation. The original Extra Plat was never skeletonized during the brand’s early years, which gives this watch a sense of progression rather than reinterpretation. 

The manually wound DR002SR movement has been redesigned specifically for openness, with solid rose-gold bridges reduced to flowing outlines and mounted on pillars to create depth without visual clutter. Even the barrel is skeletonized, allowing the remaining power to reveal itself gradually as the watch runs. You don’t need technical vocabulary to understand what’s happening here. You can see time behaving.

The finishing carries real authority. Internal angles remain sharp wherever the geometry demands it, and the movement’s structure is left uncompromised by attempts to soften or decorate it for effect. Despite the density of handwork involved, the movement reads clearly from both sides, which speaks as much to restraint as it does to skill.

At 38.6mm by 35.5mm and just 6.9mm thick, the double-ellipse case does essential work in grounding the watch. It wears low and balanced, allowing the complexity to feel wearable rather than ceremonial. The watch doesn’t ask to be constantly studied or admired. It settles into the experience of wearing a watch, which, for a piece this intricate, feels like a quiet achievement.

In a week crowded with announcements competing for attention, the Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton stood apart by being something you could live with visually, not just admire in passing. It rewards patience, curiosity, and a comfort with restraint that has always defined Daniel Roth at its best.