Introducing The De Bethune DB25xs Starry Varius ‘Volcano’ And The DB28xs Kind Of Blue Tourbillon

The DB28xs family of watches are a combination of some of De Bethune’s most distinctive design features and technical innovations, but in cases which bring a more classical wearing experience. The DB28xs Aerolite, DB28xs Purple Rain, DB28xs Starry Seas, and DB28xs Steel Wheels are as all De Bethune watches are, very unusual from a technical watchmaking perspective, and include De Bethune’s patented blued titanium and white gold balances, the De Bethune balance spring, and the De Bethune Triple Pare-Chute antishock system, all of which were developed by Denis Flageollet in order to provide real improvements in chronometric performance – and all of the DB28xs watches come in at a very traditional 38.7mm in diameter. Today, De Bethune’s announced two new additions to the family: A DB25xs Starry Varius with a deep purple dial that De Bethune says is meant to evoke “the nocturnal spectacle of a volcanic erruption,” and the DB28xs Tourbillon, which features De Bethune’s fast rotating, ultra-light 30 second tourbillon.

The DB25xs Starry Varius “Volcano” like the preceding De Bethune xs models, is designed to offer a combination of technical and aesthetic features with a versatile and practical case size. The dial is made of titanium, which has been heat tempered to a deep burgundy color, and which, like the preceding Starry Varius models, shows a star field as seen from Earth. The stars on the dial are tiny white gold pins of varying sizes placed in drilled holes, and the Milky Way is depicted with laser-applied flakes of gold leaf. The case is the standard DB25 collection design, with fixed (that is, non-floating) lugs, openworked, with small ogival tips.

It’s a quite stunning effect which makes excellent use of the available dial real estate. The size of the DB25xs Starry Varius is a bit of a departure for the De Behune xs collection – while all other watches have been 38.7mm in diameter, the DB25xs Starry Varius is slightly larger, at 40.6mm x 8.8mm. The watch is available in two versions – one is in rose gold, and the other in polished Grade 5 titanium.

The movement packs quite a lot into the 40.6mm case – it’s De Bethune caliber DB2005. The movement runs at 28,800 vph in 26 jewels, and puts out a six day power reserve from two asymmetrically arranged mainspring barrels. The balance wheel is in titanium with gold inserts and to improve efficiency, the escape wheel is in silicon.

In terms of technical watchmaking, this is one of the most advanced movements available. Every part has been optimized for efficiency – the use of titanium for the balance, with white gold inserts along the rim, means that the mass of the balance is highly concentrated at the circumference, where it provides the best moment of inertia – the ability of the balance to resist deviations in rate due to external disturbances.

These are overall extremely refined watches, which show the maturity of De Bethune’s designs – as well as its ability to make watchmaking innovation and great beauty in movement design, two sides of the same coin.

The DB28xs Kind Of Blue Tourbillon is in contrast to the DB25xs Starry Varius, aligned with the other members of the DB28xs collection in terms of size – like all the other models, the case is 38.7mm in diameter (and just 8mm thick).

While the new DB25xs Starry Seas models have fixed lugs, the DB28xs Kind Of Blue Tourbillon has the floating, or articulated, lugs found on the other DB28xs models (and indeed, on DB28 watches in general). The case essentially sits inside the floating lugs, which are only connected to the case proper at the pivot points, and the lug system means that any De Bethune watch which has this system is apt to be more versatile than usual in terms of wrists on which it comfortably be worn.

The star of the show in this case is, as is true of all De Bethune Kind Of Blue watches, the color blue. All blue components are titanium, tempered blue, which is a design feature which, while not exclusive to De Bethune, has certainly become widely recognized as a signature DB design feature. Heat bluing titanium is a bit of a technical tour-de-force, as titanium is a poor conductor of heat – much more so than steel – and has to be heated quite slowly and evenly in order to avoid hot and cold spots, and produce an evenly colored result.

The basic movement architecture is essentially an inverted version of the DB2005; this is the caliber DB2009v7 and as you can see, the delta bridge in the tourbillon version is visible on the dial side of the watch. The movement shares the same basic twin mainspring barrel configuration as the DB2005, with the barrels arranged asymmetrically under the bridge. You’ll notice also that while the long axis of the delta bridge is horizontal in DB2005, it’s vertical in DB2009v7, with the crown at 12:00 rather than 3:00. (This is also necessary thanks to the floating lugs, which make a standard 3:00 crown impractical).

The power reserve, however, is slightly lower, at five days, although this is still an impressive number, for several reasons. First, the movement is 30mm in diameter, which is more or less the standard size for wristwatch movements (historically, 30mm was the maximum diameter for wristwatches at the observatory chronometer competitions).

The second reason is that this is a high frequency tourbillon; De Bethune tourbillons run at 36,000 vph (about the maximum beat rate in modern wristwatches; and so far higher frequency movements have remained experiments which have not been series produced). The tourbillon rotates once every thirty seconds and both in terms of beat rate and rotational speed, it is an unusual mechanism; modern wristwatch tourbillons almost invariably rotate once per minute, and run at 21,600 vph.

Another unusual feature of the tourbillon, is that it is extremely light – almost unbelievably so; the total weight for the entire tourbillon is 0.18 grams, or eighteen hundredths of a gram, with a total of 63 components in all. Into the space, De Bethune has placed its in-house titanium-and-white-gold balance, its in-house flat self-centering balance spring, and a skeletonized silicon escape wheel.  Like the new Starry Varius models, this is a highly technically refined timepiece, which gives up nothing when it comes to aesthetics as well.

The De Bethune DB28xs Kind of Blue Tourbillon, reference, DB28xsTB: case, thermally blued polished grade 5 titanium, 38.7mm x 8mm, with blued polished titanium floating lugs; Sapphire crystals front and back with double AR coating; water resistance, 30 meters. Polished titanium hands; titanium hour ring with blued microlight decoration. Movement, caliber DB2009v7, high frequency tourbillon rotating once per 30 seconds, beating at 36,000 vph and running in 36 jewels. Titanium balance with white gold inserts; De Bethune flat balance spring; silicon escape wheel; ultra-light tourbillon (0.18 grams total). Price, $225,000.

The De Bethune Starry Varius “Volcano” ref. DB25VxsTiV2 (titanium) or DB25VxsRV2: cases, polished grade 5 titanium or 5N rose gold, 40.6mm x 8.8mm, with burgundy-tempered titanium dials decorated with white gold stars and laser micro milled Milky Way patterns, gilded with 24k gold leaf. Water resistance for both watches, 30 meters. Movements, caliber DB2005, running at 28,800 vph in 27 jewels; power reserve, 6 days from double mainspring barrels. Titanium balance with white gold inserts; self-centering De Bethune flat balance spring; silicon escape wheel. Prices, $80,000 in titanium, $85,000 in rose gold.

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