DB28TRS De Bethune Tourbillon

The DB28 is modern De Bethune’s halo offering. It has won all the awards, sustained market interest, and was perhaps the brand’s most audacious project of all time. In the wake of that success, De Bethune have been iterating and, year on year, offering slightly more niche DB28s in smaller quantities. De Bethune are an involved one, one of the few independents that manufacture everything from the hairspring to the handset vertically. This has given them the bandwidth to meet collectors with very specific offerings, like the zirconium tourbillon shown here.

That’s right, 42mm articulating is shown here for the first time with zirconium lugs, giving it the title of the ‘black gold’ tourbillon. It is believe to have been produced in only 10 examples. It features the same impressive high-beat tourbillon calibre debuted in their Dream Watch series. The 30 second tourbillon is crafted in silicon and titanium and said to weigh just 0.18 grams, the heart of this 282 component calibre.

The remaind of this design is characteristically alien. A Côtes De Bethune finish is applied to the dial base, which features hand snailed barrels poking through the edges. The motion-work bridge takes majority real estate, balanced by the rose gold bezel with a sort of detent design at 6. If a rose and black DB28 dressed to the nines is your sort of party, it is likely that nothing else will do. And I for one am over the moon to see independents doing well enough today to be able to engage in this patron-style relationship with their clients. The watches which result are objects of design and celebration in equal measure.

This example comes with a full set and is otherwise in exceptional condition. I don’t even see wear on the ultra-hard zirconium or indeed very exposed rose gold bezel. It comes from a well-regarded, independent-focused retailer.

Find this DB28 here from Watch4moi for 215000 USD.