De Bethune DB24

The brainchild of Davide Zanetta, a collector of vintage timepieces and art, and Denis Flageollet, a watchmaker who began his career restoring vintage timepieces, the De Bethune brand was created in 2002 to manufacture 21st-century watches rooted in traditional horology. Since then, De Bethune watchmakers, engineers, and designers have developed over 30 in-house movements incorporating many technical inventions based on the spirit of 18th-century watchmaking.

This DB24 features an ingenious ‘variable inertia’ automatic winding system that allows the owner to tailor winding to their activity levels by adjusting the rotor based on the wearer’s arm’s movement. A lever in the crown allows the winding mode to be set to either “sport”, “normal” or “slow”, allowing the rotor to spin with more or less inertia based on activity, thus making the watch an ideal sports timepiece.

Featuring an oversized, 48mm diameter titanium case, the watch is light and comfortable to wear. The striking looking dial is fitted with highly legible hands with a futuristic aesthetic. This is complemented by the bezel, which is constructed from a unique blued titanium specific to this very limited watch, and which is also found on the pin buckle.

In addition to its use of contemporary materials, the watch also provides plenty of utility with its impressive 500m of water resistance. An indicator at 12 o’clock displays the impressive six-day power reserve. The innovative movement features a patented triple 'pare-chute' shock absorbing system with a titanium bridge and ultralight balance wheel, providing high shock resistance.

Numbered 16 of 50, this example which originally retailed for 60,500 Swiss Francs (£49,000) has just returned from service and shows no signs of wear. Its condition is within the bounds of the seller’s AAA grading. The sale includes the watch’s box, a replacement Certificate of Origin provided by De Bethune, service documentation, a spare strap, and booklets.

All watches offered for sale are searched and cleared against The Watch Register database and a certificate is available to the winning bidder upon request.

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