Placing innovation at the heart of the process. Integrating creativity. Pushing innovation. Thinking outside the box. Not repeating but inventing; thinking ingeniously while improving precision, reliability, readability and comfort: the DB28xs Starry Seas is not just an aesthetically smaller watch. It is one that starts a new chapter for De Bethune. A model that will go down in the history of the brand, as it represents a further step in the initiation story that Denis Flageollet – Master Watchmaker and Founder of the Manufacture De Bethune – has been telling for the past 20 years.
While the DB28 is an emblematic De Bethune watch, this new version is all the more remarkable for the particular meaning it enshrines. Featuring a significantly smaller diameter than previous models (39 mm), while retaining De Bethune's unique and characteristic design, the DB28xs Starry Seas is a miniature miracle – in terms of the technology required to complete the project, but above all because of De Bethune's virtuosity in transposing the spirit of the Enlightenment into the world of 21st century wristwatches, by reformulating exceptional fine craftsmanship and offering an unprecedented aesthetic creation.
There is no question of identically reproducing the past, but rather of engaging in a quest to stir new emotions when faced with exceptional objects. The intentions of Denis Flageollet, Master Watchmaker and Founder of de Bethune are pure: he looks at tradition from an innovative standpoint and works to make the contemporary mechanical watch a wristworn cultural embodiment of time measurement.
For a beautiful object to be born somewhere, mastery must have reached a certain degree of maturity
While the DB28xs Starry Seas was born of an extraordinary acrobatic feat that involved bringing the majestic sense of grandeur conveyed by the great Age of Enlightenment clocks with their scientific instruments to the wrist, its fascinating micro-mechanics along with refined aesthetics of a small watch also offer a glimpse into the deepest recesses of the creative mind behind it.
Beneath the deceptively simple appearance of mere miniaturisation, the singular nature of this watch and its design extends far beyond its smaller size and its mode of operation.
"It is the culture and understanding of techniques and objects that enable the birth of such a project. For the creation of the DB28xs Starry Seas, the creative process that impelled me evokes the Japanese spirit of Wabi-Sabi, a Japanese concept that is virtually an art form and aims to bring individuals, objects and the environment into harmony."
A lighter DB28 more resistant to impacts and acceleration
For centuries, watchmakers isolated mechanisms from external influences by placing them in towers, on tables and on gimbals. Improved accuracy was soon accompanied by a desire to wear these timepieces. While it was necessary to adapt this chronometric precision to a wide range of extreme wearing conditions, resistance to shocks, accelerations and magnetic fields are very contemporary issues that require specialised research that also relates to the smaller size of this watch.
Calibre DB2005 has been adapted to this miniaturisation without losing its chronometric quality. Better still, the increased lightness of the watch endows it with better efficiency in case of impacts and acceleration.
Aesthetically speaking, while the colour blue was not chosen solely for its visual attributes, on the one hand its symbolic reference to skies and seas as well as to its entire universe of wisdom and serenity echoes the Wabi-Sabi concept that guided its creation; and on the other hand, its presence among De Bethune mechanisms has genuine technical legitimacy. It was in fact during an initial attempt to resolve technical problems of stability and chronometry when developing the new De Bethune balances that Denis Flageollet created a new, unprecedented oscillator, combining the soft white metallic shade of palladium with the vibrant blue of titanium.
Since then, the inherently natural blue colour has become one of the brand's signatures, as its shimmering reflections on different materials and their finishes enables an infinite and refined play on nuances.
The overarching purpose is to continue the work of the great 18th century master horologists in their quest for perfect timekeeping coupled with an absolute sense of aesthetics. Using the most modern scientific and technological discoveries, the endeavours of the De Bethune teams converge to invent unique, innovative and high-performance solutions.
The principle has remained the same for more than 20 years: creating timepieces respecting watchmaking traditions while incorporating the mechanical, technical and aesthetic innovations of our time.
