De Bethune

An extremely rare, early, collectible, and charismatic rose gold perpetual calendar wristwatch of the Swiss watch brand De Bethune, founded in 2002 by the Italian vintage watch dealer David Zanetta and French watchmaker Denis Flageollet. Reference introduced in 2010–2011. Case in 18k rose gold, diameter 44mm, 12.5mm thick, lugs of a hollowed design, sapphire caseback. Matt silver-plated dial with central zone decorated by ‘lotus’ guilloché motif, raised chapter ring with dark-blue pad-printed Roman numerals, leaf-shaped blued steel hands, spherical moonphase indicator in palladium and flame-blued steel on a blued steel sub-dial inlaid with yellow gold stars. Caliber DB2324 QP, self-winding, De Bethune patented 4-spoke titanium balance with platinum ogival weights, De Bethune patented self-compensating free sprung hairspring with flat end-curve, double barrel and 5-day power reserve. Functions – indication of time in hours and minutes, perpetual calendar indicating date at 6 o’clock, days of the week in an aperture at 9 o’clock, months in an aperture at 3 o’clock and leap-year in an aperture at 12 o’clock, De Bethune spherical moonphase indicator at 12 o’clock. Black leather strap with De Bethune pin buckle in 18k rose gold. Numbered edition. De Bethune recently reported only 23 pieces made since 2011. 

The timeline of De Bethune’s perpetual calendars started in 2004, just two years after its founding, when the young brand launched the ground-breaking DB15 perpetual calendar, embedded with an impressive list of unique features. Its most notable asset was the one-of-a-kind combination of perpetual calendar and the astronomical moonphase indicator, accurate to one lunar day every 122 years, with a lunar sphere made of platinum or palladium and blued steel that rotates around its axis representing the evolution of the moon phase. This complication is supplemented by a ‘hidden’ leap year indicator, which is installed in the largest star of the decorative sub-dial of the moonphase indicator at 12 o’clock – directly below the spherical moon. 

The present lot dates back to the early reference production period, as evidenced by the low case number.