Daniel Roth’s latest addition to its time-only portfolio is the Extra Plat Platinum. A familiar face in a new colourway, the Extra Plat offers the Tourbillon Platinum‘s stealthy look in a more accessible two-hand format.

Powered by the DR002 in-house calibre developed by Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps (LFT), this regular production model brings a decidedly subtle look to the brand’s simple dress watch.

Initial thoughts

It’s been interesting to observe Louis Vuitton’s confident foray into haute horlogerie through the revival of Daniel Roth. Despite the corporate structure, astute collectors continue to speak of Daniel Roth in the same breath as other leading independent watchmakers.

To the independent-collecting cognoscenti, the platinum Extra Plat should prove a compelling option – rooted in the early history of the independent watchmaking movement but built to meet contemporary expectations.

Following Daniel Roth’s launch of the Tourbillon Souscription, the time-only, manually wound Extra Plat — “extra flat” for non-French speakers — debuted in an 18k yellow gold souscription edition followed closely by regular production models in rose gold, with and without skeletonisation. The new platinum Extra Plat rounds out the set.

Combined with the matching dial with contrasting finishes, it creates a rather stealthy profile for this otherwise opulently finished dress watch.

Extra Plat-inum

The platinum double-ellipse case shares the wrist-friendly dimension of its stablemates — 38.6 mm tall by 35.5 mm wide. Notably, the lugs are produced separately and attached to the case middle independently, and are contoured to provide a better fit compared with those of the original Extra Plat models.

In a slight contradiction to its name, the Extra Plat isn’t especially thin compared to other two-handed manually-wound watches, measuring 7.7 mm thick.

That makes it about 1.7 mm thicker than the original manually wound Extra Plat, but there’s a good reason for the difference: the DR002 movement is significantly more refined than the extremely thin — but otherwise rather pedestrian — Frederic Piguet calibres used in the past.

The extra thickness is worthwhile given the qualities of the new movement, and the case should still slip easily beneath a shirt cuff — 7.7 mm is still plenty thin by almost any standard. The added heft of platinum contributes to a satisfyingly dense feel in the hand and on the wrist.

The anthracite-coated 18k white gold dial base is finished in pinstriped guilloché, applied entirely by hand with a straight-line engine. The solid white gold chapter ring also gets the full guilloché treatment with three tiers of filet sauté borders. Black roman numerals are paired with black-coated stainless steel hands, resulting in a restrained, monochromatic look.

Fitted with the same black handset as the rose gold Extra Plat, time-telling legibility won’t be as clear given the reduced contrast against the grey dial, though this is a reasonable concession to maintain the understated aesthetic.

An elevated calibre

The Extra Plat is powered by the now-familiar manually wound DR002 developed in-house by LFT. The shaped movement is elevated with meticulous bercé anglage — rounded bevels that take twice as long to finish as ordinary straight-cut bevels that can be prepared by CNC during fabrication.

This level of finishing greatly exceeds that offered by Extra Plats from the 1990s. The DR002 is superior to the F. Piguet movements used previously from a technical standpoint as well, and features a free-sprung balance, stable 4 Hz rate and convenient 65-hour power reserve.

Key facts and price

Daniel Roth Extra Plat Platinum

Diameter: 38.6 by 35.5 mm
Height: 7.7 mm
Material: Platinum
Crystal: Sapphire
Water resistance: 30 m

Movement: Cal. DR002
Functions: Hours and minutes
Winding: Manual-wind
Frequency: 28,800 beats per hour (4 Hz)
Power reserve: 65 hours

Strap: Calfskin leather strap

Limited edition: No
Availability: At Daniel Roth retailers
Price: CHF65,000 excluding taxes

For more information, visit DanielRoth.com.