A Tale of Two Roths
The story of how a chance meeting led to a unique commission
I have been fortunate enough to have made some great friends in the watch industry but there was one person with whom I shared a particular special passion for high end watches up until his passing in 2013. I wanted to write this piece in tribute to a collector and friend who is greatly missed by his family and me.
My friend lived with his lovely wife and two children in the UK and was educated in England, though he was originally from the Middle East. His love for watches began early in his life, and his first major purchase was a Patek Philippe Ref: 2526 back in the 1970s. He continued to admire vintage watches, but his main passion was to follow the modern watch production of the day from the likes of Patek Philippe, Breguet, Vacheron Constantin, Ebel and Gerald Genta to name a few. We first met in 1999 whilst I was at Bonhams Auction House and became great friends over the years, I would often visit him at his house and catch up over a cigar whilst discussing his latest watch purchase.
He was always eager to share watches he had removed from safekeeping for my visit. Many were examples he had bought throughout the 1970s 80s and 90s and each one was always in pristine condition, with its box, papers, bills of sale, swing tags and spare straps, and so many straps…. Each watch would come with at least 4 or more spare straps from each brand he purchased from. I used to joke that the boutiques must “tremble in fear” when he visited them, but in all fairness, he was a charming, charismatic, and a very loyal client and they always welcomed him for his custom.
He would take his time opening each watch in front of me, telling me where he had bought it and the reason behind each purchase. Of course, as a fellow collector, I was always fascinated by this personal insight into his collection, something we are not always privy to hearing these days.
One especially memorable moment for him was in 1989, when he collected his Daniel Roth Tourbillon No.001 from the Asprey Boutique.
Up until this point, he told me that he had purchased many special pieces from Asprey, not only watches, but also a collection of beautiful pens and lighters, gradually building up a wonderful relationship with William Asprey, the owner of the store, visiting him whenever he was in London.
William Asprey himself was an early supporter of independent watchmakers and in 1989 he had commissioned the newly formed Daniel Roth to create just 25 pieces of the Ref: 2187 double dialled Tourbillon, each one numbered and bearing the Asprey name. It was during one of these meetings with William Asprey that my friend heard mention of the new Roth Tourbillon and he duly placed his order, requesting Number 1 if it was possible. The 25 watches were completed and delivered, and his requested number 001 was allocated to him in November 1989 at a cost of £13,000.
8 years later in 1997, my friend visited the Daniel Roth factory in the Vallée de Joux to have his watch serviced (he only ever had the manufacturers service his watches) One the staff noticed that his watch was both Asprey and numbered 001. They telephoned Mr Roth directly to tell him about this watch and he immediately came to the factory from his home nearby. Despite the initial language differences, a friendship quickly blossomed between the two men and with many visits to the Vallée de Joux and Geneva over the following years..
It was at one of those visits in 1998 that my friend ventured if Daniel Roth would accept a unique commission from him. He wanted a watch with an enamel dial depicting a Falcon to symbolise his Middle Eastern origins. Calls and meetings ensued, and in November 1998, Roth shared his first gouache designs. We can see by the drawings illustrated, a few variations were conceived, such as the placing of the signature and with or without moon-phase. They finally settled on a complicated watch equipped with an automatic movement and moon-phase in rose gold, with sapphire cabochon in the crown and a beautiful Falcon with its talons gripping the numerals.
In fascinating notes accompanying the watch, Roth states, “in spite of my best efforts, I was unfortunately not able to complete the watch within the 6–8-month time frame as requested, due to technical issues with the enamel firing of the dial”.
Bringing together such complex skills as enamel work is surely challenging for watchmakers at the best of times, but I believe that this must have been a particularly difficult period for Daniel Roth and his company, with big changes fast approaching. Nevertheless, the watch was finally finished, and although it was more than a year late, it was delivered personally by Daniel Roth over a wonderful lunch in Geneva on the 13th September, 2000. The cost at the time was a substantial £45,000, but to have received such a unique watch realised by a watchmaker he greatly respected and had become friends with, was undoubtedly the most important part of the process for him.
These two pieces here by Daniel Roth therefore embody both the conception and end of his work – my friend was fortunate to own both one of his first and last pieces he ever made whilst Roth was still in control of his company. The eventual sale of the Daniel Roth Company to Bulgari took place in 2000 and Roth’s departure came shortly after in 2001.
After a 23 year hiatus, the Daniel Roth name has emerged once more as a standalone brand. Now under the ownership of Louis Vuitton and La Fabrique du Temps, the watchmakers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini have created a new version of the subscription Tourbillon. Great things are expected from this new partnership.
→ Click here for an in-depth feature on Daniel Roth and his early work
