This is one of five examples of the De Bethune DB28 “Kind of Blue” Tourbillon*. It’s 42.6 titanium case is entirely heat-blued and high polished, as are its dial and movement sides. The signature delta-shaped mainspring bridge is adorned with gold leaf and applied gold plots to create an approximation of the Milky Way. This reference also benefits from the brand’s ultra-lightweight and antimagnetic tourbillon, made with a combination of titanium and silicon components.
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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