Our Take

It seems like every year, De Bethune arrives at Watches & Wonders with something exceptional in hand. This year, 2023, that’s no less the case. The brand comes with the DB Eight, the continued evolution and exploration of single-pusher chronographs. Now available for pre-orders through Esperluxe, this is the brand new De Bethune DB Eight. 

De Bethune has a history of creating exquisite chronographs. While the DB28 Maxichrono is De Bethune's most technically unusual chronograph, the Maison’s very first watch featuring this function – the DB1 – was a classic two-counter monopusher chronograph in the purest tradition of stylish 20th century chronographs. In a quest to bring an idea launched 20 years ago to fruition, De Bethune has now poured all its technical and aesthetic expertise into releasing a chronograph on a par with its high demands.

The DB Eight was born of a quest for elegance and a pure, subtly balanced design. Together, Denis Flageollet and Claire Wolf designed a supremely refined classic guilloché dial and developed a brand-new chronograph caliber by placing its counter at 6 o'clock so that it could be as large as possible in order to provide a highly readable 60-minute indication. When the chronograph is reset to zero, the tail of the chronograph hand subtly covers that of the minutes counter in such a way that the hands are overlaid. A very symmetrical and distinguished result for a watch housing one of watchmaking’s most demanding mechanisms. Powered by the brand’s 31st in-house caliber, the DB3000, the manual-wind, 60-hour power reserve movement is built out of 281 components and features some of De Bethune’s hallmark technologies from its patented balance-spring with flat terminal curve, titanium balance with white gold inertia-blocks, along with the silicon escape-wheel. Following in the footsteps of the DB1, DB8 and Maxichrono, the DB Eight is yet another impressive addition to De Bethune’s monopusher chronographs.