Here is an example of the De Bethune DB28 Yellow Tones*. The 42.6mm titanium case is heated to a shade of pale yellow, while the brand’s signature floating lugs are treated to flame till they turn a rich shade of amber. The varying tones are repeated in several elements on the dial side as well. The watch features several De Bethune innovations including the balance architecture; Triple Pare-Chute shock protection system; and spherical bimetal moonphase display that is accurate to 122 years. It is powered by the manually wound calibre DB 2115V4, which feature twin mainspring barrels that give it six days of reserve.
A DESIRE FOR TOTAL INDEPENDENCE
Perched in the Jura Mountains, hugging the border with France, is the small hamlet of L’Auberson, home of De Bethune. This is where the brand was born in 2002 when David Zanetta, an Italian collector and dealer of art and vintage watches, joined forces with Denis Flageollet, a fourth-generation watchmaker from France.
Right from the very first day, 22 April 2002, they made their intentions for the manufacture known. Instead of putting their own names on the dial, as so many of their contemporaries at the time were doing, the duo looked to the past for inspiration. They named it after Chevalier De Bethune, the 18th-century French nobleman and revolutionary escapement designer. It was fitting – it indicated the importance the duo placed on the history of classical watchmaking and the kind of inventiveness that had driven the brand’s namesake. Both Zanetta and Flageollet were convinced right from the start that what they were trying to do could not amount to just another watch brand; it had to be a manufacture in the truest sense of the word.
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