The De Bethune DB28 Digitale DB28DN
Minimalist to the max.
The De Bethune DB28 Digitale (DB28DN) is a bit of an unusual watch even by the standards of De Bethune’s other watchmaking. There are of course certain characteristics that it has which are shared across a number of other De Bethune watches and this includes the articulated lugs, the slight ogival or bullet-shaped lug tips, the placement of the crown at 12:00, and, of course the use of De Bethune’s signature blued steel and palladium spherical moonphase.
Where it differs from many other De Bethune watches is in the spare, almost minimalist design overall. I say “almost” minimalist because while the watch design is pared down to a few strongly executed basic elements, it is not as rigidly devoted to the elimination of ornamentation per se, as some of the more rigorous examples of minimalist art and architecture. Instead, it’s about the positive potential of negative space, which can if handled properly both contain and reflect the subjects which sit inside it.
A Classical Composition
The DB28 Digitale is organized in a series of concentric circles and arcs, beginning with the articulated lugs, which create a smooth visual transition between the strap and the round central case itself. The shape and size of the case is a reminder of the pocket watch antecedents of all wristwatches, and this is reinforced by the placement of the winding and setting crown at 12:00, which also reinforces the bilateral symmetry of the overall design. The minutes are read off a rotating disk which sits in an exactly semicircular window forming a 180º arc, with a fixed white pointer at 12:00 – again, this may seem like a minor detail but the placement of the pointer and the fact that it is fixed in position, also reinforces the overall symmetry of the design.
The hour window for the jumping hour display is also directly on the vertical centerline, and has curves top and bottom reflecting the curvature of the minute window and the case itself, as well as the blued titanium circular sky insert around the spherical moonphase. The right and left sides of the window are tapered and although it is easy to miss, the edges are exactly on two lines of radius drawn from the center of the dial to the outer edge of the case itself.
Moving in ward, there is the blued titanium sky insert and then the spherical moonphase. Here is one point where we can see a departure from the strict tenets of minimalism per se; the sky insert is not strictly speaking a necessary part of the design but it is, like the blued titanium background of the minute window, indispensable to the emotional impact of the watch. The random distribution of the stars on the central insert as well as on the the minute window also help to subtly break up the symmetry and keep it from becoming too boringly rigid – this is an effect which De Bethune also uses in the Starry Varius watches and also in the recently introduced Starry Seas watch.
A Song Of Space And Time
Two other points to consider are the placement of the De Bethune logo, and the spiraling guilloché pattern on the dial. The guilloché is also a slight departure from minimalism; it is not an essential structural or horological element but it subtly reinforces the sense of looking at the arch overhead of the night sky – it is a kind of visual representation of the hidden structure of what pre-modern astronomers called the music of the spheres. And, while the De Bethune logo seems superfluous also, it’s actually an essential formal element of the design; it gives a visual anchor to the lower half of the dial and again, keeps the whole thing in balance without rigidly enforcing an overt symmetry.
The movement is just as necessary a part of the design as the case and dial and it too is an exercise in the spirit of minimalism without too-strict adherence to the letter of minimalism. Every element shown is essential mechanically, but the arrangement of blue and white metal elements echoes the symmetry and color scheme of the dial side of the watch, and the silicon and white gold annular balance reflects the purity of form of the spherical moonphase.
I think this is not only one of the most successful designs De Bethune has produced in the two decades-plus of its whole history, it’s one of the most successful watch designs ever. There is a wonderful if poignant quality to the use of negative space on both sides of the design, which offers a comforting sense of presence in and participation in a fundamentally orderly universe, while at the same time offering a reminder of the vastness of space itself. The echoes of pocket watch design – especially of some of the classic jump hour pocket watches of the Art Deco era – add to the sense of both distance and time, as well as giving the watch a feel of being rooted in as well as standing outside of history itself.
There are a lot of beautiful watches out there but there are very, very few that manage to combine each element of their design quite as well as the DB28 Digitale. It might seem a bit much to say but the DB28 Digitale has always reminded me of a line from Aquinas that’s quoted in Ulysses, by James Joyce – that three things are needed for beauty: Wholeness, Harmony, and Radiance. The DB28 is so, so much more than a nice watch or even a beautiful design object – it is one of those rare examples of a watch that transcends its own functionality as a watch and its own specific membership in the category of wristwatches, and becomes a kind of meditation on the human experience of time itself.