De Bethune’s DB25 line has always been the quieter counterpoint to the brand’s more futuristic creations, but the new DB25 Digitale gives that classical silhouette a decidedly unconventional way to tell time.
Instead of hands and conventional markers, the watch uses jumping hours, a rotating minutes display and a spherical moon phase set into a richly decorated titanium dial.
It’s a watch that shows how De Bethune can make digital time feel poetic rather than clinical.
At a glance
- De Bethune has introduced the DB25 Digitale, bringing its digital time display into the elegant DB25 family.
- The watch combines jumping hours, rotating minutes and a highly accurate spherical moon phase on a blued titanium celestial dial.
- The DB25 Digitale is fitted with the manual-winding DB2144V3 movement, offers a five-day power reserve and is priced upon request.
Digital time enters the classical DB25 case
The DB25 Digitale is housed in a 42mm mirror-polished grade 5 titanium case measuring 11.9mm thick.
That matters because the DB25 architecture is De Bethune at its most restrained, with a round sloping profile and hollowed bullet-shaped lugs rather than the floating-lug drama of the DB28 family.
The result is still unmistakably De Bethune, but the watch wears its complexity with a more formal posture.
De Bethune has explored digital displays before, beginning in 2006 with an elaborate in-line calendar arrangement that combined day, date and month indications with jumping hours and a scrolling minute disc.
The idea returned in 2014 with the DB28 Digitale, which used jumping hours and rotating minutes through the in-house DB2144 calibre.
For the DB25 Digitale, the concept becomes more serene and more dial-led, trading overt futurism for a composition that feels closer to a night landscape.
A night-sky dial without hands
The absence of central hands gives the dial room to breathe.
A jumping-hour aperture sits at 12 o’clock, while the minutes are read by an arrow-shaped indicator at 6 o’clock against a rotating disc.
At the centre is De Bethune’s spherical moon phase, made from two polished hemispheres in palladium and flame-blued steel.
The moon phase is not just decorative, either, with an accuracy rated to one lunar day every 1,112 years.
Around it, the brand’s Starry Varius technique creates a blued titanium night sky set with hand-applied grey gold pins of varying diameters.
De Bethune then adds another layer of texture with random hand-guilloché across the central blued titanium area, producing an irregular surface that suggests reflected moonlight on water.
A silvered ring separates this central scene from a more traditional barleycorn guilloché ring, while the outer blued titanium minute track continues the star motif with additional grey gold pins.
It’s a dense decorative programme, but the display itself remains legible because the watch has so few visual interruptions.
The DB2144V3 movement under the deltoid bridge
Inside is the third-generation DB2144V3, a manual-winding in-house calibre visible through the sapphire caseback.
The movement is framed by De Bethune’s signature deltoid bridge, here decorated for the first time with the same random guilloché motif seen on the dial.
Its technical inventory is characteristically ambitious, with 416 components, 32 jewels and twin barrels delivering a five-day power reserve.
The calibre runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and incorporates a titanium balance wheel with grey gold inserts, a De Bethune balance spring with a flat terminal curve and a silicon escape wheel.
The movement also uses the brand’s triple para-chute shock-absorbing system, along with the mechanism needed to drive the jumping hours, rotating minutes and spherical moon phase.
On the wrist, the DB25 Digitale is completed by a hand-stitched dark blue alligator strap and a polished grade 5 titanium pin buckle.
Details & Specifications
| Brand | De Bethune |
|---|---|
| Model | DB25 Digitale |
| Case size | 42mm diameter, 11.9mm thickness |
| Case material | Mirror-polished grade 5 titanium |
| Crystal | Sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective coating over dial and caseback |
| Water resistance | 30 metres |
| Dial | Blued titanium with Starry Varius grey gold pins, random hand-guilloché and barleycorn guilloché ring |
| Display | Jumping hours, rotating minutes and spherical moon phase |
| Movement | De Bethune DB2144V3 in-house manual-winding calibre |
| Components | 416 components, 32 jewels |
| Frequency | 28,800 vibrations per hour |
| Power reserve | 5 days via twin barrels |
| Moon phase accuracy | One lunar day every 1,112 years |
| Strap | Hand-stitched dark blue alligator leather |
| Buckle | Polished grade 5 titanium pin buckle |
| Price | Upon request |
The DB25 Digitale is for collectors who like De Bethune’s mechanical imagination but prefer its more tailored case language.
It has the brand’s familiar fascination with astronomy, titanium and patented engineering, yet the finished watch feels composed rather than theatrical.
