When the first DB28 launched in 2010, De Bethune presented a timepiece with its own identity and a futuristic vision. It featured a distinctive case shape with the crown at 12 o’clock, inspired by pocket watches. It is on that timepiece that De Bethune’s unique and innovative – and patented – floating lugs demonstrated their self-evident purpose.
This year De Bethune celebrates the DB28’s 10th anniversary by introducing a set of three watches. All three timepieces interpret the same theme, independent of each other yet linked by their history.
Ultra-Thin DB28XP
The DB28XP is beautiful, elegant and ultra-thin. With this timepiece it is not about amplification; it is about distilling the essence.
Cut from titanium, the watch reveals an architectural fusion of space, time and light that lingers. Polished bridges and satin-finished bevels heighten the visual experience, and allow for a completely new interpretation. The dial is made of Microlight, which offers a modern take on traditional guilloche technique. The delta-shaped main plate – a De Bethune hallmark – is finished to perfectly reflect ambient light. While the metal surface is polished until it becomes a true mirror.
For telling time, no contrasting indexes, but little spheres polished like small satellites. They orbit a larger body, planet Earth, in the spirit of the solar system. A tone-on-tone pattern surrounds the central part of the elliptical dial, subtly revealing the movement’s wheels.
Finally, as a discreet De Bethune signature, the blued titanium inserts in the hands at the centre.
Timekeeping savoir-faire
The hand-wound movement features De Bethune’s balance wheel, visible through the dial thanks to an opening at 6 o’clock. Its diameter is not too large, either. Made of titanium, the movement features small white gold weights placed on the outside. This is done to give remarkable qualities of inertia, reliability and regulating ability.
At De Bethune, the balance spring is considered to be the soul of the mechanical watch. This minute maintains its true centre of gravity with a flat terminal curve affixed to the outside of the balance-spring. Among the many advantages are: lower height, better adjustment of concentricity, finer adjustment of the racquet, no need for pins. Simultaneously, the curve’s shape acts as a shock absorber in case of impact. As result, the material’s internal structure remains intact since it has been neither stressed nor bent. De Bethune has succeeded in increasing the power reserve by 20 percent, bringing it to a total of 6 days.
A completely redesigned case
Firstly, adapting the floating lugs to a much thinner case was also a circle whose squaring Denis Flageollet particularly relished. As much a technical challenge as an aesthetic one, it concretises the complexity of the “ultra-thinness” to be achieved.
The case band has been completely redesigned, with a more pronounced curvature. It flows with the lines of the wrist and lugs with redesigned whose bullets.
Technical information:
Function: Hours, minutes
Movement: DB2115v6
Type: Mechanical hand-wound movement
Adjustment: Winding and setting the time by the crown (2 positions)
Jewelling: 29 jewels
Diameter of the movement: 30 mm
Power reserve: 6 days, ensured by a self-regulating twin barrel
Case material: Polished grade 5 titanium with “microlight” case middle
Case diameter: 43 mm
Case thickness: 7.2 mm
Lugs: Polished grade 5 titanium floating lugs
Crystal: Sapphire (1,800 Vickers hardness); double anti- reflective coating
Caseback: Solid, in polished grade 5 titanium; engraved ring in blued circular satin-finish titanium; titanium plate with “microlight” decoration and De Bethune logo
Water resistance: 3 ATM
DB28XP Starry Sky
With its round, ultra-thin shape, the crown at 12 o’clock and a hunter case back borrowed from pocket watches, the DB28 Starry Sky is ultra-lightweight with mirror-polished titanium.
A multitude of small white gold pins drive through into the deep blue expanse of the dial. One by one with great care and accuracy the positions of the stars are recreated on an actual night. This is indeed a special experience, made by the fact that the firmament depicted is not random. The customer selects the date and hour and location, and De Bethune draws the sky map of on the dial.
Finally, DB28XP Starry Sky features the hour circle in silver, the minutes in Arabic numerals, the discreet De Bethune signature at 12 o’clock, and rose gold hands designed for this edition.
Technical information:
Function: Hours, minutes
Movement: DB2115v7
Type: Mechanical hand-wound movement
Adjustment: Winding and setting the time by the crown (2 positions)
Jewelling: 27 jewels
Diameter of the movement: 30 mm
Power reserve: 6 days, ensured by a self-regulating twin barrel
Case material: Polished grade 5 titanium with “microlight” case middle
Case diameter: 43 mm
Case thickness: 7.2 mm
Lugs: Polished grade 5 titanium floating lugs
Crystal: Sapphire (1,800 Vickers hardness); double anti- reflective coating
Caseback: Solid, in polished grade 5 titanium; engraved ring in blued circular satin-finish titanium; titanium plate with “microlight” decoration and De Bethune logo
Water resistance: 3 ATM
DB28XP Tourbillon
Completing the trio is DB28XP Tourbillon. It draws its inspiration from the famous dial of the DB28 Digitale. Offering hour, minute and seconds indications in 30”, DB28XP Tourbillon features an elegant and minimalist white dial with silver reflections rendered in a hand-engraved “barley grain” guilloche pattern, highlighted by a blued hour circle.
The tourbillon positioned at 6 o’clock is a titanium creation that beats at a frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour. It features a lightweight cage (0.18 gr., the lightest ever) that rotates on itself every thirty seconds and comprises 63 components (the lightest of which weighs less than 0.0001 g). Like a flying insect, a microscale exoskeleton keeps it all together.
So small, so light, so fast
The kinetic forces inflicted on a mechanical watchmaking movement should give pause. Just as Breguet had invented the tourbillon to meet the constraints of marine watches, De Bethune designed a tourbillon for the new dynamics of wristwatches. The laws of physics are clear: to compensate for the violence of wrist movements, the tourbillon cage must be as light as possible, operate at maximum frequency and speed of rotation at minimum weight and inertia. Only then can it fulfil its function in a watch for today.
On the case back, as a nod to the Aiguille d’Or – the highest distinction of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève – awarded to the first DB28. The position of the planets reflects the evening sky over Geneva when De Bethune received the prestigious prize on November 19th, 2011.
These are classic references which, in their layout and execution, reinforce the novel modern character of the timepiece. In the end, DB28XP Tourbillon ably perpetuates the De Bethune’s heritage: daring aesthetics and exceptional mechanics.
Technical information:
Function: Hours, minutes, 30’’ indicator via the ultra-light De Bethune tourbillon cage at 6 o’clock
Movement: DB2009v4
Type: Mechanical hand-wound movement
Adjustment: Winding and setting the time by the crown (2 positions)
Jewelling: 33 jewels
Diameter of the movement: 30 mm
Power reserve: 5 days, ensured by a self-regulating twin barrel
Case material: Polished grade 5 titanium with “microlight” case middle
Case diameter: 43 mm
Case thickness: 8.1 mm
Lugs: Polished grade 5 titanium floating lugs
Crystal: Sapphire (1,800 Vickers hardness); double anti- reflective coating
Caseback: Solid, in polished grade 5 titanium with the position of the planets on November 19th 2011 (Aiguille d’Or – GPHG); engraved ring in blued circular satin-finish titanium
Water resistance: 3 ATM
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