The Ultra-Thin DB28XP Trio: A Celebration of 10 Years of the DB28

De Bethune’s DB28XP series was the best new watch collection of 2020. Watchmaker Denis Flageollet’s relentless commitment to improve, refine, and advance the state-of-the-art is embodied in the newest members of De Bethune’s signature model line. Launched to mark ten years since the original DB28, the XP also permits the brand from L’Auberson to revisit its landmark “Aiguille d’Or” win in the 2011 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG).

Sure, new-watch competition is fierce, the grade-five titanium XPs are variations on previous models, and the market loves established blue-chip brand names. But the DB28XP trilogy accomplishes more than a routine model refresh. While most watch brands would satisfy themselves with dial updates, new metal options, and stylistic tweaks to successful products, De Bethune redesigned every aspect of the DB28 in order to create the XP trio.

The DB28XP obsessively improves a standout quality of the original: its thickness. At 11.7mm thick, the 2010 DB28 was admirably thin for a watch incorporating a spherical moon phase display, a power reserve indicator, and 144 hours of mainspring energy. Consider that a steel Rolex Daytona is only 12.3mm thick, and it becomes apparent that the DB28 of 2010 was a packaging marvel.

No matter. Flageollet applied his scalpel and cut the DB28XP to 7.2mm.

Be mindful that Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak “Extra Thin” – the famed “Jumbo” – is a comparatively zaftig 8.1mm, and the extent of De Bethune’s achievement becomes apparent. The XP’s titanium case remains 43mm, and the signature spring-loaded “floating” lugs are retained. For that matter, all of the brand-defining technology from “triple pare-chute” shock protection to the proprietary balance and hairspring to the six-day power reserve are retained. The DB28XP offers more by means of less.

Devotees of poetic imagery will find their soul mate in the DB28XP Starry Sky. Nominated for the “Men’s” watch category at the 2020 GPHG, the Starry Sky showcases the poetic range of De Bethune’s designers. Within the case hides the same six-day power reserve of the standard DB28, but the external design statement is unique to this model. Dimensionally identical to the DB28XP, the Starry Sky trades polished bridges and aggressive shock protection for a classical hour ring and a solid dial inspired by the heavens.

Each DB28XP Starry Sky includes a traditional satin-finished track for tracking the passage of hours and minutes. But inboard of the silver-titanium hour ring, the Starry Sky incorporates a “Microlite”-engraved image of the night sky. De Bethune employs a proprietary process for firing titanium until it achieves a rich blue hue, and the Microlite process is a reductive etching that bypasses the often cliched traditions of dial “guilloche.”

Individual white gold “stars” are placed by hand to create a canvas of the cosmos that permits the Starry Sky to live up to its name. Even better, the specific arrangement of the stars in each “sky” is specified by the client; De Bethune will arrange the celestial bodies to represent the sky over a specific location on a specific date. Weddings, births, graduations, and other personal milestones can be commemorated in titanium and gold.

De Bethune’s ultimate expression of the DB28XP concept is the tour-de-force XP Tourbillon. As with the Starry Sky, the Tourbillon was nominated for GPHG consideration – this one in the “Men’s Complication” classification.

Unlike the standard XP and Starry Sky, the Tourbillon variant must package a rotating regulator carriage and the power supply to feed this ravenous complication. The challenge is exacerbated by the fact that De Bethune’s chronometry-focused tourbillon rotates at twice the speed and twice the beat rate of a conventional one-minute/18,000 VpH tourbillon assembly. While the manic operation increases the chronometric prowess of the XP Tourbillon, it draws extreme amounts of energy.

No matter: De Bethune’s high-beat tourbillon caliber DB2009V4 achieves five days of power reserve within 43mm by 8.1mm case dimensions that are nearly identical to the two standard XP models.

Flageollet and his engineers accomplish this mechanical miracle by executing the lightest tourbillon assembly in history with only .18 grams of mass. To be clear, this mobile assembly of silicon, titanium, white gold, and 63 individual components has a mass of one-hundred-and-eighty thousandths of one gram. Even better, the payoff extends beyond prodigious power reserve and permits De Bethune to claim daily accuracy of less than one second gained per 24-hour day.

But this limited edition of 10 pieces is more than just a precision instrument; it’s a beauty. Each example includes a fire-blued grade five titanium hour ring and matching blued hands at center. The silvered dial is an example of authentic rose-lathe (i.e., reductive) guilloche in a dynamic “grain d’orge” or “barley corn” pattern. The case back of the XP Tourbillon is embellished with a miniature of the solar system’s planetary alignment on the night of November 19, 2011, the evening of De Bethune’s landmark “Aiguille d’Or” overall win at that year’s GPHG.

Each example of any DB28XP variant – as with all De Bethune models – can be customized completely. DB fabricates its own cases, dials, and movements while maintaining a staff proficient in craft arts such as engraving and gem-setting. Nothing is beyond the realm of imagination if the budget suffices.

In a model year dominated by the economic tumult, social distancing, the demise of Baselworld and the internet-breaking hype of watches called “Kermit” and “Snoopy,” it’s easy to lose sight of a low-key indie watch brand. But savvy watch collectors know that real value stems from exclusivity, innovation, and beauty. De Bethune’s DB28XP collection hits the mark in a mangled market and a wild world.