Our Take

One of the icons in modern independent watchmaking, the DB28 is back with a new edition – the DB28xs Starry Seas. Fortunate to have Denis Flageollet at the helm, there’s always something new, innovative, and fascinating about DB28 releases. There’s no repetition or simple changes in dial color. Every time, the timepiece is a canvas for some new idea – a surface for the master watchmaker to make his pursuits material. Here, the DB28xs continues that trend.

For the DB28xs, Denis Flageollet placed wabi-sabi at the center of the creative process. A wabi-sabi philosophy entails finding beauty in small things, atypical things, and modest things. It’s fundamentally focused on accepting the imperfections and impermanence of everyday life. De Bethune found a way to bring wabi-sabi elements into this timepiece through its dial, updated case dimensions, and its uniqueness within the broader landscape of modern watchmaking.

We observe on the dial that the brand has created the world’s first randomized guilloché. Featuring a blued titanium wave reflecting a starry sky, it’s incredibly beautiful while imperfect and chaotic with its absence of symmetry. For a wabi-sabi appreciation of the small and modest, many collectors will be thrilled that the DB28xs is under 40mm in diameter. The updated 39mm case with the brand’s patented (and ultra-comfortable) articulated lugs means that this timepiece will fly under the radar for everyone other than fellow indie collectors. With its highly polished titanium case, the DB28xs is lighter than its predecessors and ultra shock resistant, thanks to the in-house DB2005 caliber.

The DB28xs is another testament to De Bethune’s relentless pursuit of new watchmaking techniques across material sciences, finishing methods, and technical innovations. Whether it’s forging their own metal alloys or inventing a new method of guilloché, every De Bethuen timepiece is the end result of one of the brand’s deep explorations in different aspects of watchmaking.

The Details

DB28xs Starry Seas

Functions: Hours, Minutes

Dial:

• Silver-plated hours and minutes ring with transferred Arabic numerals
• Random guilloché blued titanium dial (world’s first)
• Starry sky with white gold stars

Display:

• Polished titanium hands

Case: Polished grade 5 titanium

Adornment: Polished grade 5 titanium

Glass: Sapphire (1,800 Vickers hardness) with double anti-reflective coating

Strap: Extra-supple alligator leather with alligator lining.

Movement: DB2005

Power reserve: 6 days, ensured by a self-regulating twin barrel – De Bethune Innovation (2004)