De Bethune Launches The DB25 Perpetual Sky And A New DB Kind Of Two Jumping GMT

De Bethune has just announced two new versions of two of its most successful watches at Dubai Watch Week. The latest version of its perpetual calendar, originally launched in 2005 (the DB15, which also debuted De Bethune’s first in-house movement),  is the DB25 Perpetual Sky, which brings the famous “starry skies” motif to the DB25 Perpetual Calendar. The DB25 Perpetual Calendar was launched in 2010 (it was also a contender that year at the GPHG) and the starry skies dial goes back a bit further – to the very rare gem-set DBL, from 2005. The 40mm version of the DB25 Perpetual was launched in 2022, and the DB25 Perpetual Sky keeps the same case diameter.

The dial is De Bethune’s signature blued titanium, with stars made of white gold pins, and the Milky Way depicted with micro-laser engraving and white gold leaf. The movement is the De Bethune caliber DB2005 V3, which is 30mm in diameter – the classic diameter for a wristwatch movement – and which has a five day power reserve, with De Bethune’s titanium balance with white gold inserts, the De Bethune flat balance spring (which offers the same benefits as a Breguet overcoil, but without the added height) a silicon escape wheel; the Triple Pare-Chute antishock system, and De Bethune’s spherical moonphase, which is accurate to one day’s error in 122 years.

The addition of the starry skies dial to the DB25 Perpetual is a logical and a beautiful one. The perpetual calendar can be defined as an astronomical complication, inasmuch as the cycles of the Gregorian calendar are necessitated by the fact that the Earth’s orbit is not a whole number of days, and the starry skies motif is a concrete visualization of what in most perpetual calendars, remains something of an abstraction. And that spherical moon deserves sky to match.

The new version of the Kind Of Two Jumping GMT was originally launched in 2022 and was most recently seen in a collaboration between De Bethune and music legend Swizz Beatz, in the Season 3 Kind Of Two Jumping GMT, launched earlier this year.

The new version is identically technically, but very different aesthetically, and now features an anthracite dial decorated with guilloché.

The Kind Of Two Jumping GMT is in a titanium case, which is mounted on the pivots of the articulating lugs, a design arrangement which allows this 44.3mm x 11.4mm watch to fit comfortably on a wide range of wrists. The case itself has two sides, which De Bethune refers to as the Classic and Contemporary faces, and the Clasic face is just that – the display shows the time, with gold hour and minute hands and a titanium seconds hand which jumps once per second. The expansive dial makes good use of the generous amount of available space and gives the Classic face an almost pocket watch feel, which is aided and abetted by the crown at 6:00.

When the case is rotated, the crown shifts into the 12:00 position and the complexity of the watch becomes more clearly visible. The hours are displayed in a sub-dial at 6:00, and the minutes are shown via a peripheral indicator sweeping around an outer chapter ring. Most of the Contemporary side, however, is taken up by displaying the movement, which is De Bethune caliber 2517, running at a high frequency of 36,000 vph. Despite the Contemporary monicker, there is a good amount of classic watchmaking on view courtesy the hand-snailed mainspring barrel covers, and polished and chamfered steelwork. De Bethune’s usual technical innovations are on display as well, including the De Bethune balance and balance spring, and the deadbeat/Jumping Seconds complication, the gearing and separate escapement for which take up the center of the movement.

There are many visually striking elements, but one of the most characteristic of the contemporary side of De Bethune is the hour hand, which reflects the shape of De Bethune’s signature delta shaped mainspring barrel bridges, and which rotates around the upper jewel for balance. The hour hand is supported partly on two ruby rollers, which ride in a groove on the inner surface of the subdial. A very unusual watch that lets you have it both ways in a couple of senses; it shows you both a Contemporary and Classic vision of horology, and lets you admire both the aesthetics and the (really original) mechanics as well.

The DB25 Perpetual Sky, ref. DB255SQPV2: case, grade 5 titanium, 40mm x 11.3mm, with integrated hollowed lugs; sapphire crystals front and back; water resistance, 3 atmospheres/30 meeters. Display, yellow gold hands, blued titanium dial with starry sky; stars in white gold; Milky Way laser engraved with 24 carat gold leaf. Movement, caliber DB2005 V3, 30mm, with five hour power reserve. The DB25 Perpetual Sky will be produced in a series of five watches in 2025, with limited production for 2026. Price, $145,000. 

The DB Kind Of Two Jumping GMT (with anthracite dial) ref. DB2V1S8: case, grade 5 titanium, 43.3mm x 11.4mm, sapphire crystals, 3 atmospheres/30 meters water resistance. Classic display, Hand polished rose gold hour and minute hands; anthracite finished dial with 5N gold transfer, with central guilloché; Contemporary display, titanium hour and minute indicators with peripheral minute indication. Movement, caliber 2517, 30mm diameter, running at 36,000 vph in 58 jewels; GMT display with separate times on the Classic and Contemporary displays. Eight pieces planned for 2025 with further limited production in 2026. Price, $235,000.

The 1916 Company is proud to be an authorized retailer for De Bethune; contact us for pricing and availability.