Daniel Roth Unveil Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton at LVMH Watch Week

If you want to understand what LVMH is trying to do at the sharp end of its watchmaking, Daniel Roth is a useful case study. Reviving a cult independent name inside a major luxury group comes with an obvious question: is this a real continuation of an idea, or just a logo being used as a vessel for expensive craft? So far, the reboot has leaned heavily on the right signals. But how does the new Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton stack up?

Like all the model released so far, the design language is unapologetically Daniel Roth, with that double ellipse case that still looks unlike anything else. And when it comes to the display, this is not just a dial opened up for effect. The watch is built around the DR002SR, a shaped, hand wound calibre developed from the DR002 and reworked specifically for openworking. It’s a true skeleton in that the goal was to remove material as aggressively as possible while keeping the structure stable.

The movement is also where the watch makes its biggest, and most expensive, point. The bridges and mainplate are in solid 18k 5N rose gold. That is partly theatre, because it looks and reads as luxury the moment you see it, but there is also a practical reason: gold takes traditional finishing beautifully, and it gives a warmth that makes the polished steel details pop.

Skeletonisation is brutal on finishing standards, because every shortcut is visible, and Daniel Roth is clearly aiming to win on the difficult stuff. The internal angles are beautiful, which matters because clean, sharp interior corners are one of the areas machines still struggle to replicate convincingly.

Underneath the openworking, the fundamentals stay sensible for a modern dress watch movement: a free sprung balance, a 4Hz frequency and 65-hour power reserve. None of that is headline grabbing on its own, but it is the sort of baseline you want before you start paying attention to the hand work.

The case sticks to the Extra Plat brief, even if the skeleton treatment changes the vibe. It is 38.6mm by 35.5mm and just 6.9mm thick in 5N rose gold, with sapphire on both sides and blued hands for contrast. The only potential drawback is the same one skeleton watches always face: the more you reveal, the less clean the read can become, which is where those blue hands help set the bar for calm, legible restraint.

The price of the Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton is CHF 85,000 (approx. £79,350), excluding taxes. It is not a numbered limited edition, but it will be produced in limited numbers each year, with availability from January 2026.

More details at Daniel Roth.