De Bethune Launches Two Colorful New Versions Of The DB Eight Monopusher Chronograph
The latest chronograph from De Bethune gets two colorful dials, and new precious metal cases.
De Bethune’s history begins with a chronograph – the DB1, which was a two register monopusher chronograph, was one of the first watches De Bethune introduced when it launched its first collection in 2002. The movement in the DB1 was a variant of a monopusher chronograph caliber originally designed by a complications specialist firm co-founded by Denis Flageollet, called THA (Techniques Horlogères Appliqueés).
The original version of the DB Eight was introduced just a year later, in 2003, and in contrast to the DB1, the DB Eight had a single subdial for the chronograph minutes, located at six o’clock, which could time intervals of up to 45 minutes. Last year’s new model – now known as the DB Eight – introduced a number of changes – the instantaneous minutes counter can now time intervals of up to 60 minutes, and there were some subtle changes to the design as well, including an increase in diameter of the subdial, and a reduction in size of the outer minutes track.
The new models introduce precious metals, as well as two new dial colors (last year’s DB Eight had a titanium case, white dial, and blued titanium hands). The new models are in white and yellow gold, and feature new dials in chocolate brown and royal blue.
Colors for the numerals have been updated as well, to reflect the case metals, and the hands are in titanium for both watches – the yellow gold model’s hands have been heat tempered to a golden yellow, in keeping with De Bethune’s long-standing practice of using heat-tempered, colored titanium as a design element.
De Bethune has also kept the twelve sector, radial guilloché pattern on the dial, as well as the barley grain engine turning on the minutes subdial.
The movement is still the DB3000 – fitted with De Bethune’s blued titanium balance as well as the De Bethune balance spring, with its terminal curve which provides the same benefits as a Breguet overcoil but without the added height (the DB Eight is 42.4mm x 9.2mm, which is quite thin for a chronograph) and with a silicon escape wheel. The movement bridges are, somewhat unusually, in chromium plated polished steel, in contrast to the usual general practice in the industry of using rhodium plated brass.
The whole effect of the new colors and new case metals gives the new versions of the DB Eight a slightly more formal air – a little more extroverted than the the titanium model but also a little more dressy. De Bethune’s watches don’t generally fit neatly into any particular conventional category, which I think is part of their appeal – DB watches are very much their own thing, and although you can see some differences across their collections in terms of functionality, as a rule, De Bethune’s watches defy categorization.
Of all the watches in the current catalog, it’s really the DB Eight that is the strongest direct link to De Bethune’s origins. The echoes of pocket watch design found in the earliest DB watches are there, as well as the generous dimensions that give the watches a larger canvas for displaying their design features, and the DB Eight, like the DB1, sits on the cusp of the moment that De Bethune began to differentiate itself from conventional watch design – and indeed, the era in which independent watchmaking as a whole was really taking its first bold steps away from conventional watch designs. In 2002, the DB1 was the herald of a new era; in 2024, the latest DB Eight watches are a tangible connection to the past, and a reminder of those heady days when in horology, the road less taken was the most interesting one to take.
The De Bethune DB Eight in yellow and white gold, with “royal blue” and “chocolate brown,” dials: cases, 42.4mm x 9.2mm, sapphire crystals front and back, water resistance 30 meters. Hands in titanium; dial decorated with twelve sector guilloché pattern and barley corn engine turning on the chronograph minutes subdial. Movement, De Bethune caliber DB3000, tilting pinion hand-wound chronograph with De Bethune balance, balance spring affix, and silicon escape wheel; power reserve, 60 hours, running at 28,800 vph in 31 jewels.