One of Daniel Roth’s signature models is its 8-Day tourbillon, which is designed and manufactured in-house.

Daniel Roth’s simplest perpetual calendar model, if it can be called that, is the perpetual calendar with moon phase, shown below; the other Daniel Roth perpetual calendars have added complications like equation of time, stopwatch or tourbillon.

This year Daniel Roth has combined both the 8-Day tourbillon and the perpetual calendar to create a unique complication.

Each case metal is presented with a different coloured sapphire dial, brown for the rose gold as pictured, while the white gold case has a complementary grey dial. The dial is actually composed of two levels, an outer track with applied Roman numerals, and an inner track, separated by a hand-finished, solid gold chapter ring.

Just under 12 o’clock sits a window which displays the accumulated power reserve of the watch, a useful feature but one that could have been done better - the indicator is too small. Of course an 8-Day power reserve gives the owner the luxury of winding it only once a week so the power reserve is not of paramount importance, but it still would be nice to have a more legible power reserve display.

Nonetheless, the highlight of the dial side is the tourbillon. It sits in an open area on a base decorated with a fine hobnail pattern, held up by a rounded and black polished bridge. Being a one minute tourbillon, it also acts as a seconds hand; Daniel Roth’s signature three-armed seconds hand is individual blued over a flame.

This watch is housed in the patented double-face case, which enables the wearer to flip open the watch while it is on the wrist, to reveal the display on the reverse of the watch. I love the ingenuity of the double-face case, and the engineering that went into making the massive case resilient enough for repeated use is amazing, but I have to admit flipping open the watch while on the wrist takes some getting used to. The case is so obviously heavy, which makes me wonder if the hinges can withstand the force; Daniel Roth has tested the case many thousands of times and it can.

The reverse of the watch contains the calendar display - day, date, month, moon phase and leap year. Like the other Daniel Roth perpetual calendars, the moon is depicted in a life-like manner, with craters and all.

The perpetual calendar display is left as open as possible, even the discs displaying the day and month are clear sapphire, so all the components of the perpetual calendar can be seen. Especially admirable are the steel parts which are all polished and bevelled by hand.

Like the dial side, the base plate of the reverse is decorated with a fine perlage (circular graining); the choice of decoration is purely an aesthetic one. Some have commented that this style of decoration resembles the decoration found in Gerald Genta watches. That is true, but the Daniel Roth is finished in a subtle rhodium plate, unlike uses extravagantly decorated, gold-plated finishes for all its watches. Furthermore the perlage on the dial side is only visible at certain angles, due to the tinted sapphire dial.

On the wrist the 8-Day tourbillon with perpetual calendar has presence without being loud. I personally find its height perfectly fine, but some may be uncomfortable with its thickness, a result of the additional perpetual calendar plate as well as the double-face case. That aside, this watch is a perfect example of the haute horlogerie that Daniel Roth excels at, a cleverly conceived and beautifully finished high complication that is not found elsewhere.

- SJX