3-Watch Thursday #56
Daniel Roth through three patents
Good morning team,
I hope you’re all well.
This week I’m delighted to share an overview of a topic I’m keen to dive into a bit further, as well as some incredible work from others.
Any feedback or further insights would be greatly appreciated. I’m aware I don’t know this story from the inside, it’s simply interesting how well things seem to line up.
I am of course referring to Daniel Roth watches, so without further ado let’s dive straight in.
Three Patents That Tell The Story of Daniel Roth
The story of Daniel Roth, his watches, and the brand that now uses his name is a complex one.
Hyped to extreme heights in the post-pandemic watch boom, his early watches soared in popularity and price.
Things appear to have settled since, but the brand is back on the radar since Louis Vuitton relaunched it and Hodinkee released this video earlier in the year.
Now working in patents and noting the mention of a patent in the Hodinkee video, I figured it would be interesting to look into the patents assigned to Daniel Roth. There aren’t many, but each appears to tell a part of the story of the time at which it was filed.
CH 674290 B5
Following his exit from Breguet in 1988, Roth began to establish his own brand, hiring watchmakers to pass his skills onto.
1988 was also the year that Roth filed for this patent.
One might assume that in filing for, and eventually receiving protection for, this pusher-actuated timezone system it would feature in watches, yet I can’t find any evidence to suggest so.
Between 1988 and 1995, I haven’t found an image of a watch featuring this system in the picture above. I’d gladly be corrected, but these watches would still remain exceedingly rare.
Regardless, there appear to be two takeaways from this patent.
Firstly, this is a mechanism Roth must’ve been working on for some time before starting his company. Filed by June of 1988, could be a very quick draft and application, but I struggle to see how Roth wasn’t thinking of this while at Breguet.
Secondly, if it’s a mechanism that wasn’t used, was Roth moving quickly to protect the ideas that he had upon starting his brand?
This leads to follow-up questions as to why just one patent. Did other things start to take priority? Had they quickly gained a foothold and established themselves such that the IP didn’t matter?
All hypothetical questions that only the man himself and a few others might know the answer to, but the next patent wasn’t until 1995.
EP 0 950 932 A1
1994 marks a turning point in the story of Daniel Roth.
For purists, this is the end of “early” Daniel Roth. No longer an independent brand, but owned by The Hour Glass (THG) where processes were simplified and many feel the brand lost its way.
During this era, IP must’ve been on the mind, as we find the second patent filed with Daniel Roth as the inventor in 1998.
Pictured above is a figure from EP 0 950 932 A1.
The butterfly jump hour patent mentioned in the Hodinkee video and arguably the most iconic watch from Roth in the 1994-2000 era.
Once again, a couple of questions are raised.
This was the only patent filed under THG ownership. Was this due to a lack of innovation? Mechanical innovations in watches tend to be quite hard to come by, so lack of innovation possibly isn’t the answer.
Does this mean that Roth patented the butterfly jump hour because he felt he was onto a successful product that would reach iconic status? Possibly not again. As we saw in 1988, not everything that Roth patented gets used extensively.
We might never know why this specific mechanism was patented, yet in being so, it hints towards something internal. We don’t always see innovation on the outside of watches, but when we do, it can lead to iconic status.
USD 464575 S
On THG selling to Bulgari in 2000, Roth left the brand that he had started in his name, pursuing independent watchmaking again in 2001 through Jean Daniel Nicolas.
No longer using the double ellipse case shape that he had previously, Roth developed a new case shape: one with a bump in it.
This was protected with a design patent (slightly different from a normal utility patent) in 2001, right at the brand’s inception.
While it is known that Roth did not particularly like the boardroom and corporate structure overseeing his watchmaking, it’s interesting that he still felt the need to protect the ideas that were his as an independent watchmaker.
Maybe this sheds some light on the motivation behind the other two patents, in that it was Roth himself who was motivated to protect the work that was his.
Again, I suppose only he (and a few others) know.
That really is the conclusion of this exercise. While we can see this information in the public domain, most of us can only hypothesise what was happening at Daniel Roth between 1988 and 2000.
Nevertheless, each of these three patents is iconic in its own right and deserves to be shared as we seek to learn more about the watches we love.
Insight: When Simplicity Belies Complexity, the F.P. Journe Chronomètre Optimum
Oddly, it’s been a while since I recommended a piece from SJX, but my word this goes right back to the heart of what SJX is good at…technical insight.
Thoroughly worth a read for learning about the EBHP (Echappement Bi-axial à Haute Performance) and what makes this no-complication watch tick.
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Experimental Rolex Chronographs - The 1937 "Non-Oyster" Reference Guide
Some things happen like clockwork.
Marcus Siems publishing a banger of an informative article over at Goldammer is probably up there in terms of frequency.
If you’re interested in reading more about non-Oyster Rolex chronographs, this is the place to go.
Wind Vintage Going From Strength To Strength
By now you’ve probably seen this article over at Esquire titled:
The Million-Dollar Dealer. How Eric Wind Became The Vanguard Of Vintage Watches
It’s a brilliant piece and well worth checking out, but for me, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The blog keeps going from strength to strength too with Charlie publishing:
The 10 Best Vintage Rolex Watches To Collect
All on the back of winning Pre-Owned Watch Retailer of the Year from WatchPro!
Congrats to the team over in Florida and I can’t wait to see what’s in store in the future!
And finally, please enjoy this Dad Joke.
Hope you all have a good weekend when we get there!
Owen
Thank you, Owen!