Starry tourbillons and more from De Bethune
De Bethune Starry tourbillons
Founded in 2002, Manufacture De Bethune is an independent watchmaker that develops and produces all of its timepieces. Since its founding, De Bethune has developed no less than 26 calibres, presented 30 or so world firsts, filed a number of patents, and launched around 150 one-of-a-kind models. Its timepieces have won awards in major international competitions. This year, the marque’s stunning offerings include the GPHG-award winning DB25 Starry Varius Chronomètre Tourbillon and the DB21 Maxichrono Reedition, its first reinterpretation of a prototype that is presented in 2006
DB25 Starry Varius Chronomètre Tourbillon
De Bethune received the prestigious Chronometry Watch Prize for its new DB25 Starry Varius Chronomètre Tourbillon at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) award ceremony in Geneva on November 9, 2018. De Bethune sought to optimise the tourbillon that Abraham-Louis Breguet invented for his 18th century pocket watches on today’s wristwatches. To do so, the tourbillon had to have the highest possible frequency and fastest rotation speed. This was done by creating a titanium and silicon tourbillon with a frequency of 36,000 vibrations/hour, an extraordinarily light carriage (0.18 grams, the lightest ever created in the industry) spinning on its axis every 30 seconds, comprising a total of 63 components (the lightest of which weighs less than 0.0001 grams!).
The 42mm-diameter watch is equipped with the mechanical manual-winding DB2109V4 calibre, entirely designed, developed and produced within the De Bethune workshops. A jumping seconds display ensures precise read-off. The state-of-the-art titanium balance-wheel with white gold inserts has been optimised for temperature changes and air penetration, regulated by means of the De Bethune balance-spring with its patented flat terminal curve, which maintains a perfect centre of gravity. The test report on the watch confirms that combining the jumping seconds complication with the tourbillon has not been detrimental to the chronometer’s precision. The De Bethune starry sky with its gold-studded blued titanium dial can be personalised in accordance with the customer’s wishes (with a date and a geographical location). The traditional gold leaf method has been complemented by laser beam micro-milling to create a Milky Way effect.
DB28 Yellow Tones
After its complete mastery of its iconic blue, De Bethune now explores a warm colour. To create its own fiery, radical, magnetic yellow, De Bethune applies its famous technique of gently oxidising grade 5 titanium to tint its surface naturally. The iconic De Bethune DB28 features a polished grade 5 titanium case mounted on the two new floating lugs unveiled this year. The hand-wound mechanical calibre is fully visible and incorporates several fundamental technical discoveries. The patented spherical moon phase is located at 6 o’clock. Made of steel and palladium, it is accurate to within one lunar day every 122 years. At the heart of the watch, the high-performance escapement developed by De Bethune features a titanium balance wheel with white gold weights and a flat terminal curve balance spring, ensuring an ideal mass-inertia ratio for the optimal frequency of 28,800 vph suitable for wristwatches. It comes endowed with manifold properties that deliver a 20-percent gain in power reserve achieved by improving the efficiency of the escapement-oscillator assembly.
The calibre also comes equipped with the triple “pare-choc” shock absorption system. All finishes are by hand, featuring a polished titanium motion work bridge, “Côtes De Bethune” decorated bridges and rose-work grinding on the barrel ratchets. The hours are indicated by skeleton hands on spherical polished steel indices. The watch is completed with an alligator strap presenting a brown buckle with a yellow pin buckle in polished grade 5 titanium.
DB28GS Grand Bleu
De Bethune presents its first 100% sports watch: the DB28GS Grand Bleu. To illuminate the watch and the movement from the inside, the slightly bluish white light source is produced by a fully mechanical means that works on the dynamo principle. The brand researched a new blue photoluminescent material to improve the readability, and have come up with a new blue that casts the perfect De Bethune blue during the day, and yet radiates the same tone in the dark. This exclusive luminescent material named Blue Moon is now proprietary to De Bethune.
For the DB28GS Grand Bleu, all the numerals relating to the minutes counter normally indicated on the bezel, appear on the sapphire crystal driven by the bezel, enabling the model to remain elegantly slender. A new calibre – hand-wound, with central seconds and a five-day power reserve indicated on the dial – is the 27th calibre created in-house by Manufacture De Bethune. Endowed with numerous properties, there is a 20% increase in power reserve. The calibre is also equipped with the triple pare chute system, and has hand-crafted finishing such as blued titanium components, zirconium case middle and Microlight decoration. Water-resistant to 105 metres (10 ATM), the DB28GS Grand Bleu model is delivered with two straps: a canvas version and a striated natural rubber iteration with titanium folding clasp.
DB21 Maxichrono Reedition
This is the brand’s first reinterpretation of this revolutionary chronograph designed in 2006, which is pure, absolute and radical in its approach, thanks to its principle of five hands mounted on a single central axis and controlled by a simple single pusher. This extremely pared-down system paradoxically requires extremely complex development involving a mechanism that operates with several interdependent column wheels, all five axes in the centre, embedded into each other and yet working independently. Each can be zero-reset on demand, and autonomously restart. Everything is controlled by a single pusher at 6 o’clock because this is the easiest position to access the controls quickly and simply when the watch is on your wrist. The case is fitted with the patented De Bethune floating lugs. Beating at a frequency of 36,000 vph, enabling fifth-of-a-second readings, the DB2030 movement is equipped with the De Bethune absolute clutch, a patented system resulting from more than seven years of research and development.
The DB21 Maxichrono is a reliable and precise time-measurement instrument that is both aesthetically pure and highly readable. Endowed with a remarkable five-day power reserve (one of the longest on the market), it proclaims a classic heritage that is smoothly combined with modernity in a highly distinctive aesthetic balance. Today, 13 years after presenting the first prototype, De Bethune is for the first time introducing a re-edition of its famous DB21 Maxichrono, crafted on this occasion in grade 5 titanium – a very limited edition of only ten pieces.
