Introducing: The Unpolished Matte Calfskin Strap
Hands-on with a breakout brand of 2025
Good morning, and happy Thanksgiving to my U.S. readers. Today, introducing the newest Unpolished Strap: Matte Calfskin, and a few words on what’s to come in 2026. Before that, notes after getting hands-on with a surprising breakout brand of 2025.
If you’re looking for a holiday read, I enjoyed this history of the Blancpain Léman, a neovintage collection I’d admittedly overlooked.
A surprising breakout watchmaker of 2025
Last week, Cam Wolf sent out his annual GQ Watch Survey. He asks respondents to name the three brands that had the best 2025. Some are obvious: Vacheron Constantin and the Solaria, the most complicated wristwatch; Rolex and the Land-Dweller’s new escapement. But as I thought about it, my third response felt surprising: Daniel Roth.
When visiting La Fabrique du Temps a couple of weeks ago, I saw the new Daniel Roth Tourbillon Platinum. LFdT makes watches for Louis Vuitton, Gerald Genta, and Daniel Roth, a kind of group within a group. The new Tourbillon Platinum is the same we’ve seen in yellow and rose gold, but with a grey dial and platinum case. All three are excellent.
During my visit, I saw watchmakers Enrico Barbasini and Michele Navas both wearing the steel prototypes of the previous yellow and rose tourbillons. Prototypes that, someday, could sell for a ton of money at a charity auction. But at LFdT, it just makes sense—of course they’d both be wearing/testing prototypes of Daniel Roth’s signature release around the manufacturer.
The platinum prototype was also stainless steel, but the movement was fully functional and finished.
Every aspect of the Roth Tourbillon is better than the original from the 90s. The case is thinner and more balanced.1 The guilloche is perfectly executed. LFdT has a room with 4-5 old rose engines to create the various guilloche patterns on the dial.2 Most importantly, the movement is built from the ground up. It’s thinner and actually shaped to the double-ellipse case. The architecture isn’t groundbreaking, and its bridges aren’t racking up inner angles like unread emails (it seems we’re past that overly-simple view of finishing anyway), but there’s a nice bit of symmetry.
There’s lots of black polish, most noticeable on the comma-shaped third wheel bridge. LFdT also had a disassembled movement to illustrate that the finishing extends beyond what you can see through the sapphire caseback, for example, beveled spokes on the geartrain wheels.
Price. The Tourbillon Platinum is CHF 185k (~$230k). It’s competitive with the new enamel Lange 1815 Tourbillon, another technical, manually-wound tourbillon.
Choosing between a Roth or Lange tourbillon—champagne problems. I was more excited to see the Extra Plat, first announced as a yellow gold Subscription in January before adding the Rose Gold this summer. It’s also impressive, and while simpler, it’s finished to the same level as the Tourbillon.
GPHG. A few hours after visiting LFdT, I watched the Extra Plat Rose win the GPHG “Time Only” award. Say what you will about the GPHG, but even while visiting the manufacturer, it was clear the awards meant something to watchmakers Barbasini and Navas. If it’s meaningful to guys like that, who worked for Genta and have nothing to prove to anyone, that says something.
Secondary Talk. Interestingly, I noticed 1916 Company already has a pre-owned Extra Plat Rose listed for $75k (of note: 1916 is also an authorized retailer of Daniel Roth, and you can inquire about buying a new Rose for $65k).
As I mentioned in the audio recap of my Geneva trip, Daniel Roth is showing how a large group brand can compete with the indies. They’re well-made watches with a healthy dose of handcraft. As more indies come out with their take on a well-finished three-hander closer to $100k than not, Daniel Roth offers a compelling alternative.
Introducing: Matte Calfskin Straps
The next Unpolished strap is here: Matte Calfskin. It’s French calfskin with a matte finish that sits neatly between a dressy finish and more distressed, vintage feel. More durable and dressed-up than nubuck or suede, but not as dressy as traditional calfskin. It works on a Patek Philippe Calatrava or a vintage Submariner.
The Matte Calfskin Strap is launching in three colors: Chestnut, Slate Blue, and Stone Grey, with 18, 19, and 20mm lug width. The soft, matte finish gives each color a natural look and feel.
Like the Canvas Strap, the Matte Calfskin is from Nick Gabarro. They take on a subtle patina and shine with time. These were my favorite leather straps from him, which is why I’ve brought them back. Buy them now in the Unpolished Store:
Launch & Pricing
The Matte Calfskin is launching at $100, but will increase to $110 on January 1, 2026. Since many of you have ordered Canvas Straps, I’m also offering free U.S. shipping for the rest of 2025—Unpolished’s version of a holiday sale.
Stock up on some great straps while also supporting your favorite newsletter for watch collectors.3
The Matte Calfskin Strap will begin shipping on December 8. The final straps will be stamped with the Unpolished wordmark on the back—in the product photos of these samples, you’ll see it’s blank.
All paid subscribers continue to receive 10% off orders from the Unpolished Store. If you’re a current paid subscriber, the discount code should be in the header or footer of this email. If you’re not, what better time to upgrade?
A quick note about Unpolished in 2026
Unpolished’s first anniversary is in January 2026. Many of you have subscriptions that will renew then—and I hope you do! With the launch of the Matte Calfskin Strap, I thought it’d be relevant to share some plans for 2026. There will again be two subscription tiers:
Standard: $99/year or $9/month
Founding Member: $199/year (down from $299 last year)
2026 Founding Member Perks. The biggest update is to the Founding Membership. It’ll include:
2025 Unpolished Rewind Magazine! It feels like a shame to just put 2025 behind us, so I’m printing the best writing and photography from Unpolished in a physical magazine. It’s still being finalized, but expect about 60 perfect-bound pages of the most popular newsletters from 2025, along with plenty of photos of the best watches I saw this year (vintage and modern), including some stuff that hasn’t been published yet. I try hard to use original images for this newsletter, which I think helps set it apart from others. The magazine is another way to showcase that.
Your choice of any strap from the Unpolished Store. Canvas or Leather.
Other paid subscriber benefits:
Annual subscribers: $50 off any watch service from Watchcheck
All paid subscribers: 10% off orders from the Unpolished Store
Paid subscribers can also access comments, chats, and Q&As.
I’ll discuss 2026 more in a few weeks, but since the Founding Membership includes a strap of your choice, I wanted to announce 2026 Founding Memberships with the launch of the Matte Calfskin Strap:
Not only thinner, but they’ve also reworked the case so the middle caseband evenly splits the profile. It might not sound like much, but it makes for a more balanced wear. The brand did the same on the Extra Plat.
One of the machines was recently acquired and is being restored. As my tour guide explained, finding someone with the skills to refurbish a rose engine is about as difficult as finding someone with the skills to use it.
For bulk orders (10+ straps), reach out to me directly.
Strap, magazine, and good journalism. That's an easy upgrade!
Excited for Unpolished in 2026, particularly the print edition look back!
Early days, but at some point would be great to consider an international version founding membership package. You are globally renowned, after all!
And thank you sincerely for flagging my piece on the Léman series. It’s the first thing I’ve properly written about watches beyond Instagram captions so I’m very humbled you appreciated it.