Discover the Tourbillon Rose Gold by Daniel Roth
When it comes to Daniel Roth and his eponymous brand, one couldn’t imagine that it had already been around for over two decades. Based in the famed Vallée de Joux of Switzerland that is also home to many famous Swiss watchmakers, Daniel Roth had also worked at other workshops in Le Sentier, a village in Vallée de Joux in the canton of Vaud. The brand Daniel Roth has already established a name for itself over the years, known for highly detailed and complex watches. More recently, it introduced a revival of a classic watch from its collection with the Tourbillon Rose Gold for Geneva Watch Days.
Just a year after releasing the Tourbillon Souscription in yellow gold, the brand’s emblematic tourbillon returns once more. But this time, it comes with a rose gold case and a new guillochage en ligne dial. The case is made of 5N rose gold to match the 5N rose gold guilloche dial. Being the designer behind the Tourbillon C187, it’s clear to see where Daniel Roth got the inspiration for the Tourbillon Rose Gold.
The Revival of Daniel Roth with Rose Gold
The case features the 5N rose gold alloy, giving it a different look and feel from the Tourbillon Souscription.
Rose gold is seen as one of the traditional materials used in watchmaking, given its warmer tone and aesthetic appeal. For the Tourbillon Rose Gold, Daniel Roth sought to incorporate the 5N alloy, which is an 18k gold alloy with a much deeper and richer tone, which sometimes gives it the name ‘red gold’. The case takes on a double-ellipse form, a shape that was the foundation of Daniel Roth and his brand as he created it himself when he established the brand in 1988.
The forming of a square with a circle gives the watch its unique shape to frame the visible tourbillon at 6 o’clock. Even after being introduced into the market more than three decades ago, the double-ellipse shape has been one of the handful of modern-day case designs to take on the form of an ageless icon. Even the lugs of the case were redesigned to add a graceful curve that was more in line with the rounded edges of the case while also being ergonomic.
With the case and dial bathed in the 5N rose gold alloy, Daniel Roth also included sterling silver on the dial for the applied chapter and scales. All of the markings are furnished with a glossy black lacquer to match its black-coated stainless-steel hands, which complement the overall aesthetic of the Tourbillon Rose Gold. Much like the Tourbillon Souscription, the dial of the watch was created in collaboration with Kari Voutilainen.
The guilloche on the dial was done by hand with a manually operated straight-line engine that engraved each vertical line one at a time.
It’s clear that the Tourbillon Rose Gold has taken cues from the Tourbillon C187, especially when it comes to the guillochage en ligne, an engine-turned pattern of parallel, vertical lines on the dial. While the earliest examples of the C187, as well as the Tourbillon Souscription, had a hobnail guilloche on the dial, Daniel Roth chose the linear guilloche design instead to be a trademark of the brand.
What Works Within
Residing within the Tourbillon Rose Gold is the DR001 calibre, which can be observed through the sapphire case back. The movement was developed in-house and manufactured at La Fabrique du Temps, which is also Louis Vuitton’s watch manufacturer in Geneva, Switzerland. The DR001 movement was shaped by Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini and featured elements found in traditional watchmaking.
Having known Daniel for many years before the revival of Daniel Roth, we understood his philosophy, with its emphasis on tradition, quality, and details, so we instinctively knew the DR001 had to be peerless in every way. We also understand Daniel’s preference for elegance and subtlety, so we designed the DR001 to showcase a discreet but perfect finissage that connoisseurs will appreciate under a loupe. Now, we are especially proud and happy that the movement can be fully admired in all its glory through the sapphire back.
Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini
To match the linear guilloche on the dial, the bridges of the DR001 are finished with Côtes de Genève with its stripes vertically aligned. Each bridge is further enhanced by anglage, rounded, bevelled edges that are mirror polished, giving the bridges a radiant outline. There is also a wheel driving the tourbillon that is held in place by a curved bridge of black-polished steel while its pivot jewel sits in a gold chaton, one of three gold chatons in the movement. The linear winding click is also lathered in black-polished steel to create a precise, yet gentle sensation when winding the movement by hand.
The attention to detail on the Tourbillon Rose Gold ensures that every element of the movement, no matter how small, receives the same level of exceptional craftsmanship. Both the tourbillon bridge and carriage are in steel that’s been polished by hand to a mirror finish. Even the screws holding the carriage together, which are amongst the tiniest components of the movement, are mirror polished on their heads and chamfered along their edges and slots.
