Baselworld 2019: De Bethune

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Пара новинок.

DB21 Maxichrono Réédition

Building the watchmaking of tomorrow by imagining what the great Master Watchmakers of the 18th century might have created today. Deconstructing so as to eliminate unfounded assumptions; pushing back the boundaries of knowledge; exploring new horizons... And returning to mechanical and aesthetic aesthetics embodying a perfect balance.

First presented in 2006, the first DB21 "Maxichrono" was born from a precise and clear vision of the chronograph in the mind of Denis Flageollet, Master Watchmaker and cofounder of the Manufacture De Bethune.

The vision? To create watchmaking’s purest and most absolute chronograph. To endow it with a resolutely contemporary expression. And to rethink its design, along with its architecture and technical construction. No one had yet dared to take such a radical path. The result? A timepiece that remains revolutionary in many ways, resulting from an approach that is free of any acquired knowledge or preconceived ideas. In the centre, on a single axis, are five remarkably mounted hands following a vertical sequence of carefully fitted pillars and wheels... a real technical feat.
This extremely pared-down system paradoxically requires extremely complex development involving a mechanism that operates with several interdependent column wheels, all five axes in the centre, embedded into each other and yet working independently. Each can be zero-reset on demand, and autonomously restart. And as if to push the limits of technical and aesthetic purity even further, everything is controlled by a single pusher at 6 o'clock because this is the easiest position to access the controls quickly and simply when the watch is on your wrist. It is all the more convenient in that the case is fitted with the famous patented De Bethune floating lugs.
Thus eliminating multiple counters that create visual distraction, the result is a timepiece that resembles sports timers designed for actual timekeeping work; a real reading of chronograph counters, seconds counter, minutes counter and hour counter; along with an ability to measure long times, thereby offering a real timekeeping range of up to 24 hours in a row (whereas the usual de facto limits are 9 to 12 hours, and 30 to 45 minutes) with tenth-of-a-second accuracy. Beating at a frequency of 36,000 vph, enabling fifth-of-a-second readings, the DB2030 movement is equipped with the De Bethune absolute clutch*, a patented system resulting from more than seven years of research and development.

The DB21 Maxichrono is a reliable and precise time-measurement instrument that is both aesthetically pure and highly readable. Endowed with a remarkable five-day power reserve (one of the longest on the market), it proclaims a classic heritage that is smoothly combined with modernity in a highly distinctive aesthetic balance. Today, 13 years after presenting the first prototype, De Bethune is for the first time introducing a re-edition of its famous DB21 Maxichrono, crafted on this occasion in grade 5 titanium. De Bethune remains to date the only Swiss manufacturer to have presented such a pure and accomplished chronograph.

DB28 Yellow Tones

With complete mastery of the art of thermal oxidation of metals, De Bethune continues to explore all the colour shades resulting from the heat released by the chemical reactions of heat-treated steel and titanium.

In De Bethune’s workshops in L’Auberson, the particles become luminous and the metals – titanium in particular – emit a visible light... the material oxidizes, the properties are modified, the surfaces are transformed, new natural colours come to the fore. Denis Flageollet, Master Watchmaker and founder of De Bethune, initially started working with his team on the blue tonality. Natural blue, a colour linked to the notion of infinity and harmony, is one of De Bethune's main fields of research. It has become the company’s distinctive signature.

As with a luminous vibration, each colour exudes a different type of energy.
True as ever to the natural colours of the four elements – sky, water, earth and fire – De Bethune now explores a warm colour (as opposed to the cool colour of blue). And so it is that the Maison reveals, in a new edition, natural shades of amber and flame blonde, reflecting the colours of fire, sun, warmth and luxuriance, along with the incomparable clarity that emerges from it, synonymous with energy, joy and vigour.

Hand and heat.
To create its own fiery, radical, magnetic yellow, De Bethune applies its famous technique of gently oxidising grade 5 titanium to tint its surface naturally. This ritual conjures an extraordinary, rare and uniform fire yellow.
This know-how is applied to the case components and to most of the movement’s components. Each element is thus individually examined to ensure the process is properly calibrated to suit shape and mass. This preliminary step is essential to obtain a range of uniform tones. However, the human touch and the typologies of the materials mean that tiny variations persist. These nuances are essential to De Bethune as they create a visual resonance that impacts the perception of the result. Indeed, the final fire yellow tone, brought about by the sum of all these variations, translates into a kind of all-encompassing vibrancy.

All beauty and refinement, a timepiece that presents the Maison’s latest innovations.
The iconic De Bethune DB28 features a polished grade 5 titanium case mounted on the two new floating lugs unveiled this year. Entirely redesigned, of intermediate size, harmonised and adapted to the essence of the watch, they come together in the hallmark rib, more prominent here, recalling the spirit of the first De Bethune collections.

The hand-wound mechanical calibre is fully visible and incorporates several fundamental technical discoveries. The patented spherical moon phase is located at 6 o'clock. Made of steel and palladium, it is accurate to within one lunar day every 122 years. At the heart of the watch, the high-performance escapement developed by De Bethune features a titanium balance wheel with white gold weights and a flat terminal curve balance spring, ensuring an ideal mass-inertia ratio for the optimal frequency of 28,800 vph suitable for wristwatches. It comes endowed with manifold properties: aerodynamics, optimised efficiency, reliability, regulating quality, thermo-compensation, anti-magnetism... which deliver concrete results as attested by the 20-percent gain in power reserve achieved by improving the efficiency of the escapement-oscillator assembly.
The calibre also comes equipped with the triple “pare-choc” shock absorption system. De Bethune was not only the first contemporary manufacturer to design a bridge held symmetrically on both sides to perfectly maintain the balance wheel in position, but also to integrate two shock absorbers at each end, in addition to the shock absorber of the balance wheel itself. Hence the name “triple pare-choc”.
All finishes are by hand, featuring a polished titanium motion work bridge, “Côtes De Bethune”- decorated bridges and rose-work grinding on the barrel ratchets. The hours are indicated by skeleton hands on spherical polished steel indices.
The whole finds its completion with an alligator strap presenting a brown buckle with a yellow pin buckle in polished grade 5 titanium, which also contributes to the practical and pleasant wearing of this timepiece.