This is an early example of the De Bethune DB25WS3, distinct within the DB25 range because of its sporty aesthetic. This is paired with a white gold case, 44mm across and 12.5mm high. On the dial as well as on the movement sides, it wears a number of details proprietary to the brand. Aside from the time-telling aspect, the dial expresses the reserve left in the mainspring. It is powered by De Bethune’s first self-winding calibre in 2024. The watch has recently been serviced by the brand.
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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