Introducing The De Bethune DB28xs Aérolite, With Meteorite ‘Random Guilloché’ Dial

Meteorite dials, for all that the material is behind some of the most interesting and unusual dials on Earth, generally tend to follow a fairly predictable playbook. The vast majority of meteorite dials are made from iron-nickel meteorites, which exhibit enormous metal crystals in geometric patters, cut into very thin disks and  treated in order to bring out the crystal patterns as vividly as possible. For the new DB28xs Aérolite, De Bethune has combined methods and motifs from two previous watches – the DB28xs Starry Seas, and the DB28XP Météorite – to produce a watch unlike either and also unlike any previous De Bethune watch.

The DB28XP Météorite is a tourbillon wristwatch fitted with an unusual meteorite dial, taken from the Muonionalusta meteorite, one of the oldest known meteorites on Earth, which is thought to have impacted around a million years ago, during the Quaternary period. It’s an iron-nickel meteorite and it fragmented as it passed through the atmosphere but several quite large fragments have been widely used as base material for meteorite dials – while those fragments have laid strewn across the Scandanavian landscape, four Ice Ages have passed. The meteor from which those fragments came, is much, much older, probably dating to near the formation of the Solar System itself – most iron-nickel meteorites come from broken up planetoids which have left their remnants tumbling silently in the Asteroid Belt, until some gravitational hiccup propels them into the inner Solar System.

The crystal patterns, known as Widmanstätten patterns, after their discoverer, are giant metal crystals which can only form when the iron-nickel cores of planetoids slowly cool over a period of millions of years – as such they are impossible to reproduce artificially (unless you have ten or twenty million years to burn) which is part of the attraction of the material.

The DB28xs Starry Seas was launched in 2023 and represents a move to bring De Bethune’s aesthetics, signature design codes, and watchmaking innovations to a smaller form factor; the DB28xs is a relatively diminutive (for De Bethune) 38.7mm. Its most notable design feature is De Bethune’s so-called “random guilloché” which is a series of horizontal parallel lines running across the dial, with random-seeming undulations that give the impression of ripples on the surface of the ocean – the ocean at night, in this case, as the DB28xs has a heat-blued titanium dial decorated with De Bethune’s starry night motif, consisting of tiny white gold pins strewn across the dial. The effect is very much like stars reflected on waves at night.

The DB28xs combines the meteorite dial of the Météorite with the “random guilloche” and starry sky treatment of the Starry Seas.

The dial in this case is made from the same Muonionalusta meteorite fragments as seen in the Météorite, and the Widmanstätten patterns are clearly visible. However, the dial has also been engraved with a starry night random guilloché pattern, and it has been heat tempered, not to a uniform blue, but to an almost iridescent range of blues and purples. The case is black zirconium – essentially, a high performance ceramic – which gives the whole watch a darkly attractive and very nocturnal appeal.

The random guilloché pattern certainly appears random at first glance but if you look closely at each individual ripple, you’ll see that they are bilaterally symmetrical across the vertical axis of the dial. This symmetry is a little easier to see in the DB28xs Starry Seas, and in the Aérolite, the asymmetrical distribution of the white gold stars and the color gradients, make the dial seem more random in its patterns, without losing the compositional backbone you get from the underlying symmetry.

The movement, caliber DB2005, is the same used i28xs Starry Seas and the Starry Varius watches; it includes De Bethune’s self regulating twin mainspring barrels, a blued titanium balance with white gold inserts, a flat balance spring with De Bethune’s self-centering terminal curve, a silicon escape wheel, and De Bethune’s Pare-Chute antishock system.

“Aérolite” is a little bit of a misnomer in that the term is often used to describe stony meteorites specifically, rather than iron-nickel ones, however, the literal meaning of the term is literally “sky stone” which may not be precise enough for someone with a PhD in meteoric taxonomy, but which is certainly close enough for us civilians. The “xs” designation again refers here, as it did with the DB28xs Starry Seas, to a slightly smaller case but the smaller size does nothing to dilute the very big impact of the design – and the uncluttered dial lets the billions of years it took for the base material to form, really reveal themselves. The joy of a meteorite dial is always  very much dependent on its ability to provide an intimate relationship with a representation of time so deep it challenges the human imagination; the DB28xs Aérolite turns that technical and abstract pleasure into one that’s deeply visually sensual and profoundly emotional.

The De Bethune DB28xs Aérolite: case, matte anthracite zirconium, 38.7mm x 7.4mm, with matte anthracite zirconium floating lugs; sapphire crystals front and back, 30M water resistant. Polished pink gold hands; anthracite chapter ring with transfer-printed Arabic numerals in pink. Dial, heat-blued meteorite with random guilloché pattern and white gold “starry sky” motif. Movement, De Bethune caliber DB2005, 6 day power reserve, with flat balance spring with De Bethune self-centering terminal curve, blued titanium balance with white gold inserts, silicon escape wheel, and triple Pare-Chute antishock system; running in 27 jewels at 28,800 vph. Price at launch, $120,000, limited annual production. 

Find out more at DeBethune.ch.