Whenever Mark Zuckerberg posts on Instagram, watch enthusiasts, and we at Timekeepers Magazine, zoom straight in on his wrist. His Halloween post was no exception. He and his family kept the spooky evening casual: the menu was burgers. His watch, however, was anything but casual. Spotted on his wrist was the Daniel Roth Extra Plat Souscription in 18k yellow gold (ref. DBBE01), one of the rarest pieces to come out of the brand’s recent revival.
A Revival Backed by Louis Vuitton
Daniel Roth founded his brand back in 1988. It became well known for one shape above all others: the double-ellipse case. After a long hiatus, the name returned under Louis Vuitton in 2023, with development led by La Fabrique du Temps.
The Extra Plat Souscription is only the second chapter of that revival and it is also the most personal one. The watch pays tribute to the original Extra Plat that was released in 1990 and to Roth’s lifelong fondness for extra-thin watches. He developed that fondness as a young watchmaker in the service department at Audemars Piguet.
7.7mm of Gold
The double-ellipse case measures 38.6 x 35.5mm and is just 7.7mm thick. Compared with the early-’90s originals, the revival case has softer, downward-curving lugs. Each lug is hand-soldered to the case middle, and the result sits closer to the wrist.
The dial is where the watch stops being merely elegant. It is cut from the same 18k 3N yellow gold as the case and engine-turned by hand with a clous de Paris guilloché pattern on a traditional rose lathe. That detail matters to collectors. Vertical stripes became the house signature over the years, so a clous de Paris Daniel Roth is the rarer sight. Deep blue Roman numerals match the heat-blued hands, and with just two hands and no complications, the dial stays deliberately clean.
The DR002 Calibre
Behind the solid gold caseback is the hand-wound calibre DR002. It is a shaped movement that follows the double-ellipse of the case. La Fabrique du Temps developed and assembled it under master watchmakers Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini. It runs at 4 Hz with a 65-hour power reserve and has a free-sprung balance.
The caseback is closed, just as it was on the original Extra Plat watches. The individual series number is engraved on the caseback and repeated on both the dial and the movement.
One of 20
Daniel Roth limited the Extra Plat Souscription to 20 pieces and never published a price. That puts Zuckerberg’s watch firmly in haute horlogerie territory, quietly worn on burger night. And honestly, we were not suprised. Over the years, we've spotted some of the rarest pieces from independent watchmakers on Zuckerberg's wrist. He has become a well-established collector with a clear eye for the indies so if anyone was going to get his hands on one of just 20 Extra Plat Souscriptions, it was always going to be him.