De Bethune - Horological Elite

Watchmaker-inventor Denis Flageollet doesn't hesitate to challenge destiny to verify an idea. His method: the same sort of will to win that is found inside an athlete and the ability to think like the original pioneers in watchmaking.


WORLDTEMPUS – 17 June 2011

Interview by Louis Nardin


The most audacious watches by De Bethune look like they came directly from a science fiction film. Their never-before-seen shapes correspond perfectly to their unclassifiable mechanics. Brilliantly and tastefully combined, these homegrown inventions pay tribute to the patrimony of watchmaking and technical extremes at the same time.

After cycling up yet another Jura ascent, this time battling a deluge of water falling from the sky, the duo making up Veloptuous Times arrived a bit bedraggled at De Bethune's research lab. Housed in what used to be the village pub of La Chaux, Denis Flageollet—co-founder of De Bethune and watchmaker-inventor—welcomed us with towels in hand. Once we were dry, he explained his way of working and the purpose of it.

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Worldtempus: As the son and grandson of watchmakers from the Vosges region of France, do you feel you were predestined for this craft?

Denis Flageollet: I don't know. Truth to tell, I loved sports and I studied sport in school. But I needed a real job to live, and I much appreciated vintage clocks. I learned watchmaking, especially since my father and grandfather taught me many tricks. I studied at the Technicum in Le Locle and I had the chance to meet teachers and other masters who gradually helped grow a passion in me for mechanical watchmaking. The discussions that we had gave me the energy to look further, to dig into the subject. Diploma in hand, I restored vintage pieces for Le Locle's Musée d'Horlogerie. It can be considered my best school.

You then worked with many great specialists for restoration….
After a brief return to France, I joined Michel Parmigiani's small team. I also learned a lot from Charles Meylan, a watchmaker from the Vallée de Joux gifted with encyclopedic knowledge and experience gathered throughout a lifetime. With him, for example, I realized my first extra-flat perpetual calendars. I then searched for my independence by founding THA with some other watchmakers, a workshop for the creation of unique pieces. It was getting to know David Zanetta, the co-founder of our brand, within the framework of THA that triggered the creation of De Bethune in February 2002.

De Bethune may well almost be a hidden brand. It accumulates patents, in particular within the most difficult domains of watchmaking like escapements, for example. Why?
At the turn of the millennium during discussions with our clients, I got wind that Nivarox—the supplier who practically has a monopoly on escapements—was thinking of reducing its deliveries. One of my first research jobs was to look for an alternative to existing suppliers. This we also did with De Bethune: David and I immediately wanted to go to the end of these things, which also included the creation of new escapements.

Veloptuous Times_330677_1In addition to attacking heavy technical subjects, you also maintain a fast rhythm in your capacity to innovate. Why?
When you are interested in a subject, you need to take it to the end. And the accessible solutions to all of them don't interest me because it is always possible to find new and alternative ways. The true challenge is in exploring one's passion. And when you are there, you forget time.

How do you proceed to innovate?
I try to put myself in the skin of the great watchmakers of the era and to see the problem as they might have, taking into consideration the new technologies available and all the research that has been accomplished up to now. They have already found many solutions. Some of them have crossed the ages, others have disappeared, but so many have succeeded and the ones that have failed had excellent sources of inspiration. It is also important to work with collaborators who don't come from watchmaking. An engineer from a technical office and a mathematician are from different universes and thus see problems with different eyes. Because the key is also to know when to determinedly question that which exists. To know that this quest concerns the technology as much as the aesthetics and the comfort of De Bethune's watches. Veloptuous Times_330677_2



What is the principle challenge in watchmaking today?
Vintage inventions are reordered to fit the taste of the era and at times presented like recent innovations. This is not really problematic within itself. On the other hand, I note a certain confusion among the brands. They watch each other, and instead of creating their own identity, they follow trends and the products lose their identities, always resembling one another. Opposing this, I loved, for example, the watch that Eva Leube presented at Baselworld. She created a caliber that follows the shape of the wrist. Many brands dream of something like this, but do not dare to commit themselves all the way. She did. Finally, one last point regarding the intrinsic value of a product. Watchmakers search for a lot of things, and the contents of a watch don't always correspond to their prices. If watchmaking were considered for its artistic value, this value would need to be found throughout the watch. The products would have to have content from every point of view, and not only an elegant body with a motor and no soul inside.

VELOPTUOUS TIMES -  dossier

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