The Daniel Roth Metropolitan is the only dual time zone watch that can take into account Daylight Savings Time. This current iteration of the Metropolitan is actually only two years old, having been introduced in 2006. Earlier versions of the Metropolitan were far less complex, displaying only a second time zone and AM/PM. An example is the Vantage Metropolitan, shown below.

 

 

Impressions

 

Cased in white gold with a matching white gold folding buckle, this watch is hefty, weighing in at about 160 g or 5.64 oz. It is 41 mm in diameter sans crown and 44 mm long at the widest point of the case. As such it’s relatively compact but dense. It feels solid and well made; the watch feels good on the wrist. This tactile feel of quality extends to the button that shifts the city disc; it operates with a crisp click and requires just the right amount of force to activate it.

 

 

 

As with all Daniel Roth watches, the finish of the dial and case is excellent. The dial features a finely embossed clous de Paris (hobnail) guilloche with a flinque centre portion. Everything on the dial – embossing, text, and guilloche – is crisp and finely done. The attention to detail is notable, for example each of the circular windows on the dial has a bevelled edge.

 

 

 

 

Similarly, the Ellipsocurvex case is a complex design that requires the lugs to be soldered on, as opposed to being a one-piece stamped case. And because of the curved case, the sapphire crystal is also curved (on one plane lengthwise). Daniel Roth puts significant effort in obtaining top notch components from dial and case makers and that shows up clearly in the product.

 

 

Oddly enough the hands are a very simple affair. They are the brand’s signature arrow hands, slim and concise.

 

The dial design is not to everyone’s taste, the criticism most often heard is the ring running through the Roman numerals. I very much like the dial and how it looks on the wrist, but there are practical aspects that can be improved, more on that in the last section of this review.

 

 

Like several other Daniel Roth watches, the movement is a slim Girard Perregaux 3100 base with an in-house complication plate and a guilloche 18k gold rotor. And like all Daniel Roth watches, the movement finish is good, not outstanding but excellent; it is at least as good as other executions of the GP 3100 elsewhere but likely better. More importantly, it does not exhibit the industrial feel of many other contemporary Swiss watches.

 

 

 

How it works

 

We’ll start with the hands. The skeleton hand indicates home while the Luminova-filled hand indicates the second time zone.

 

 

Luminova hand pointing to 10 o’clock

 

 

Skeleton hand pointing to 8 o’clock

 

The circular aperture under 12 o’clock indicates AM/PM for the second time zone (the luminova hand).

 

 

AM (above) and PM (below) for second time zone

 

The semicircular display at 3 o’clock is the day-night indicator for the home time – the white portion of the disc refers to daytime while the blue portion of the disc indicates nighttime.  

 

Day/night indicator for home time – almost dark

 

The button at 4 o’clock advances the Luminova hand forward by an hour, which moves in sync with the city disc. Initially the two apertures with different cities are confusing but then they are easily understood with the display above six. The arrow in the aperture above 6 o’clock points to the city being indicated by the second time zone.

 

 

City discs – Paris indicated on the left (arrow upwards) and Samoa on the right (arrow pointing down)

 

As for the summer time function, it is operated by two pushers at 8 and 10 o’clock. The 8 o’clock pusher advances the Luminova hand forward by an hour for summer time – indicated by the “S” in the aperture at 9 o’clock – while the pusher at 10 o’clock moves the hand backwards an hour for winter time, denoted by “W”.

 

 

“W” indicating winter time

 

Pulling out the crown to the first position enables the wearer to advance the Luminova second time zone hand by hourly increments without moving the city discs; at the second position the time can be adjusted.

 

Using the watch

 

The biggest convenience of this which sets it apart from all other dual time watches is the quick correction for DST. If the Metropolitan could also account for half-hour time zones, it would be the most comprehensive multiple-time zone watch in the world, but that is perhaps asking for too much.

 

 

Some have commented that the hands are too slim – they are small – and tough to read in certain conditions. On occasion the Luminova hour hand is hard to catch because it is the same tone as the dial, but in general legibility is fine. Another issue raised is the fact that it has no seconds hand or minute track, neither is important to me so I am indifferent. A minute track would probably not hurt the aesthetics of the dial but a seconds hand would clutter it.

 

 

 

That being said, this watch has one big shortcoming – it has no date! Admittedly the dial side of the movement is already full thanks to all the other displays but I am certain the folks at Daniel Roth can work around that.

 

 

 

Final thoughts

 

This watch is very, very good, both in terms of functions and execution. I am pleased with the finishing, design and tactile feel. But it is a hair’s short of being brilliant, largely because of the lack of a date function. Nonetheless, this Metropolitan is the third version so I expect an improved v.4 in the distant future and I expect that will be closer to perfection.

Edited to show correct version of review. This message has been edited by SJX on 2009-01-04 04:39:11