Daniel Roth was one of the earliest watchmakers to embark on his own, fully independent career, creating contemporary, complicated timepieces, now highly sought after for their design and mechanical innovation.

In the early 1990s, Daniel Roth sought to create a perpetual calendar wristwatch for his signature double-ellipse case. Roughly at the same time in 1992, legendary watchmaker Philippe Dufour announced his decision to become completely independent and create timepieces under his own name. Residing just down the road from each other, it was inevitable for the two to work together and collaborate.

With the acceptance from Dufour, the two set out to create the Daniel Roth Perpetual Calendar ref. C117. The foundation of choice was the reliable and robust Lemania caliber 8810, which they used as a base with modifications made by Dufour to fit inside the unusual dimensions of the double-ellipse case. Described as hard work even for someone of his skill, the pair was not only developing a regular perpetual calendar but also aimed to create the world’s first instantaneous perpetual calendar where all indicators would change instantly once the hands passed midnight. Both Roth and Dufour quickly realized that too much energy was required to achieve the feature and the day and month apertures had to be changed to subsidiary dials.

The present example in yellow gold is a rare, early variant with two apertures for the day and month, pre-dating the fully instantaneous design, and instead implementing a "semi-instantaneous" perpetual calendar. The watch is in excellent overall condition and accompanied by its original Certificate of Origin and wooden presentation box and is a wonderful representation of Roth’s philosophy for technical prowess with exceptional design.