Has Neo-Vintage Revival Peaked? Hands-On With The Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription

Back in 2023, LVMH and its high watchmaking workshop La Fabrique du Temps revived the Daniel Roth brand, which had been owned by Bulgari since 2000. Roth was a towering name in independent watchmaking, having been a peer of Philippe Dufour and Francois-Paul Journe. Though the brand only lasted from 1988 to 1995, its resurrection in 2023 was only made more glorious due to the long gap. The resurrected brand debuted with the Tourbillon Souscription, which has been followed up with the new Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription, a faithful remake of the original from the 1990s that was released at LVMH Watch Week 2025.

The “Neo-vintage” craze has only gotten more popular in recent years, with the generation of watches sandwiched between vintage and modern gaining the respect and appreciation of collectors and newcomers alike. The Chopard L.U.C 1860 reissue from 2023 was one of the most celebrated neo-vintage reissues in recent years and I’d venture to say that this Roth will join the ranks. Staying true to the original aesthetics — with contemporary concessions for things like movement development — is a recipe for success in these small-batch, high-visibility watches. Small production numbers for relative rarity are helping to keep neo-vintage from becoming overexposed, but for how long? We’ll have to wait and see on that end, but for now let’s get back to the Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription.

The simple, two-hand dress watch comes in that recognizable double-ellipse case in yellow gold that measures 35.5mm wide and 7.7mm thick with a 38.6mm lug-to-lug length. The case is made using the very old-school method of producing each lug separately and then soldering them onto the case individually. A lot of time and effort also goes into the dial, which is made up of two solid gold parts, the base and the chapter ring. The base is finished with a clous de Paris pattern, done using a hand-operated straight-line engine from 1935. The base and chapter ring both have a filet sauté border created by an even older machine dating back to 1850. All in all, it takes about 10 hours of guilloché work to produce the seemingly simple dial. Finally, note the deep blue print on the dial matches the heat-blued hour and minute hands.

The all-new Caliber DR002 has a double-ellipse shape that matches that of the case and is finished using all the expected classical techniques, like anglage throughout. There are also contemporary technical touches, like a free-sprung balance wheel with a variable inertia weight on each of its four arms. The manual-wind DR002 operates at 4 Hz and has a 65-hour power reserve. Staying true to its historical roots, the Extra Plat Souscription has an enclosed gold caseback but I was fortunate enough to see a movement side-by-side with the watch.

For now, the Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription is a limited edition of 20 pieces, though there is going to be a standard-production model that will join the brand catalog in the near future. I am going to assume that the standard-production model will likely have an exhibition caseback or come in a “fresher” metal like rose gold. My reason for assuming this is that these are the exact changes that were made between the initial Daniel Roth Tourbillon Sousciption and the follow-up “standard” model in rose gold that is capped at 50 pieces per year. As for now, the Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription is priced at CHF 45,000.