An Unexpected Dive into the World of De Bethune

When you go to Watches & Wonders, you hope to have an experience like the one Zach Weiss and I did with De Bethune. The Geneva based brand was actually not exhibiting at the show, but had space in the Beau Rivage hotel, right on the lake, along with a dozen or so other independent brands, all taking good advantage of the watch world absolutely descending on the city for an entire week. I have long been an admirer of De Bethune, but always from afar. They are not the easiest indie to get your arms around, both literally and figuratively. The watches are very rare and hyper specific in their design language, and for a long time I had the sense that they might appeal to exactly the 200 or so people per year that are able to obtain a new piece, no more no less. But then the last three years happened, and every independent brand took off like a rocket ship, and since De Bethune watches kind of look like rocket ships to begin with, their rise was perhaps even steeper.

We were there, ostensibly, to see two watches. The brand’s latest novelties both happen to be more classically styled than the avant-garde pieces they’ve become known for. The DB Eight monopusher chronograph is about as classic as it gets. The case design, with those flared lugs, is based on the DB1, the very first De Bethune, also a chronograph. This one, though, has a brand new caliber and is fashioned from grade 5 titanium as opposed to solid gold. While the aesthetic of the watch is far more subdued than most De Behtunes, the caliber includes a lot of the high tech, engineering focused watchmaking that brand founder Denis Flageollet has become known for, including a titanium balance that is considerably thinner and lighter than those made by other watchmakers. The impression of the DB Eight is one of restraint – it’s beautiful, but feels like the De Bethune you’d buy if you already had a few that looked like props from science fiction movies.

The other new watch they presented was the DBD Digitale “Season 2,” a red dialed version of De Bethune’s inline calendar with a jumping hour mechanism. What was immediately striking about this one, besides the perfectly intuitive display, was the level of finishing applied to the Cotes de Geneve pattern on the dial. The precision and level of definition is clear from nearly across a room. You sometimes hear watch lovers talk about wearing their watches with the movement side showing, and this watch goes a long way toward approximating that by using finishing techniques normally reserved for the back, on the front. 

Both of these watches were impressive in different ways, but I’d be lying if I said I’d have gone home satisfied with my De Bethune experience without seeing some of their more marquee pieces. Luckily, we had some time at the end of presentation of the novelties, and our incredibly kind De Bethune rep was more than happy to begin pulling all kinds of rare treats out of drawers, placing them on trays in front of us at a pace that became tough to keep up with. Seeing any De Bethune, or any combination of De Bethunes, all in one place is a special experience, and for someone like me who just hasn’t had a lot of in-the-metal exposure to these watches but has enjoyed observing them for years, it was a meeting that became one of my favorites of the week. 

In the parade of watches that followed, some favorites emerged. For me, the one that took my breath away immediately and never actually gave it back was the DB28 Kind of Blue Tourbillon. This, to me, is the brand’s signature piece. It’s the Lamborghini poster on the wall, and the watch that most succinctly describes the brand’s unique aesthetic, sense of humor, and technical prowess. The case is heat-blued, grade 5 titanium (just about everything we saw was titanium), measures a bit over 42mm in diameter, and is just under 10mm thick. But those measurements don’t tell the story, because this watch uses the brand’s trademark floating lug design, which allows for an articulation around the wrist that makes what is visually an enormous watch wear quite comfortably. 

The heat-blued titanium is the kind of thing that plays tricks on your mind. We’re used to seeing titanium at this point. It has a certain character that we’re all familiar with, specifically its gray tone, and a finish that in most cases is somewhat rudimentary. It’s a material that takes very well to brushing and bead blasting, but is far more challenging to polish. Some brands do a great job of it, but they are few and far between. What De Bethune does is almost mind boggling, heat treating the entire case and lug system to the same deep blue color, and polishing just about every surface to a shine that would resemble a precious metal, if there was such a thing as a deep blue precious metal. When you see the DB28 on a table in front of you, you don’t expect it to be feather light when you pick it up, or to “work” on your wrist when you try it on, but it surprises on both counts, and there you have its charm. 

The other watch that stands out to me is the DB25 Perpetual Calendar. I wrote about this watch here, and it’s been a point of fascination for me ever since. I love the way it balances the futuristic, sci-fi influenced aesthetic of the brand’s wilder pieces (mainly with the lug profile, but also in the design of the movement as seen through the caseback), with more classical elements. The perpetual calendar layout is clean and minimal, and doesn’t even immediately register as a perpetual, and the dial design, with a very nicely executed guilloche pattern on the cream colored main dial, is elegant and almost old fashioned. 

And the case? In a word: great. If the DB28 wears well in spite of appearing enormous, the DB25 Perpetual Calendar wears just as well as you’d expect it to given its more modest size. It’s just 40mm, and almost feels like a mini-De Bethune when placed on a table next to much larger and more exotic designs. On the wrist, though, it’s just about perfect, and had me wondering to myself if I had six figures to spend on a De Bethune, whether I’d opt for something like a DB28, which announces itself as an exotic indie as soon as you enter a room, or something more subdued. I think I’d still go for the big blue tourbillon, because that still feels like the essence of the brand to me, but it wouldn’t be an easy decision, even with made up, hypothetical money that most definitely does not exist. 

More than any single reference, though, the De Bethune meeting was really more about a high level survey of the brand, and it became one of those indelible Watches & Wonders experiences that you recognize immediately in the moment that you’re going to remember for a very long time. There just aren’t a lot of opportunities to see this many De Bethunes all in one place, and it leaves you with an appreciation for the brand’s unique qualities that you can’t get from reading about them. You get a sense of how the design language works across product lines and complications, and how it continues to evolve in the brand’s latest pieces.

Most importantly, though, it reinforces that watchmaking is an artistic pursuit, because none of these watches are made with pure practicality in mind. Each one is a small sculpture for the wrist, and some barely resemble what we typically think of as watches. Knowing that there are brands like De Bethune out there with such a specific point of view, and the ability to execute on it year after year, is reason to be optimistic about the state of independent watchmaking at large. De Bethune