De Bethune’s Digitale idea has always sat in a particular corner of modern independent watchmaking, where historical display logic meets the brand’s unusually futuristic language.
The DB25 Digitale refines that formula by moving the concept into a slimmer, more composed case architecture while keeping the jumping-hour drama, spherical moon phase and high-mechanics character intact.
It’s still unmistakably De Bethune, but the proportions and dial layout give the watch a different kind of authority.
At a glance
- De Bethune’s DB25 Digitale brings the brand’s jumping-hour display into the DB25 collection.
- The watch combines a 42mm polished grade 5 titanium case with a layered dial, dragging minutes and central spherical moon phase.
- It joins the permanent collection and is priced at CHF 106,000 excluding taxes.
The Digitale finds a new case language
The Digitale story began in 2006 with the DBD, a distinctive De Bethune design built around jumping hours, dragging minutes and a linear calendar display.
The idea was reinterpreted in 2014 with the DB28 Digitale, which introduced the brand’s spherical moon phase at the centre of the display and used the DB28 case with its signature floating lugs.
The DB25 Digitale changes the tone rather than the premise.
Its polished grade 5 titanium case measures 42mm across and just under 12mm thick, bringing the concept down from the 45mm DB28 Digitale while retaining the presence expected from a De Bethune complication piece.
The shorter, fixed and openworked lugs of the DB25 platform make the watch feel more composed on the wrist, at least in concept, than the more architectural DB28 format.
It’s not trying to become a discreet dress watch.
Instead, the DB25 case gives the Digitale a cleaner frame for one of the brand’s most unusual displays.
A nocturnal dial built from rings and contrast
The most meaningful change is on the dial, where De Bethune has rebalanced the time display around a more symmetrical reading sequence.
The jumping-hour aperture remains at the top, while the minutes are now read through an arched opening at 6 o’clock.
That simple repositioning changes the rhythm of the watch, guiding the eye from the digital hour down to the dragging minutes in a more natural path.
At the centre sits the familiar spherical moon phase in palladium and flame-blued steel, framed by a blued titanium disc set with grey-gold stars.
A polished titanium ring surrounds it and incorporates the hour window, followed by a randomly guilloché blued titanium plate with a wave-like pattern.
That random guilloché motif, introduced by De Bethune in 2023, gives the dial a contemporary texture that contrasts with the silvered hand-guilloché barleycorn ring around it.
A final blued titanium ring with grey-gold stars completes the composition, while the polished bezel reads visually as another outer circle.
De Bethune uses 82 elements to create the dial’s nocturnal scene, and the result is dense without becoming chaotic.
The watch’s character comes from that tension between old and new craft, with classical guilloché sharing space with blued titanium, grey-gold stars and the brand’s sculptural moon phase.
Inside the third-generation Calibre DB2144
The DB25 Digitale is powered by the hand-wound in-house Calibre DB2144V3, the third generation of the movement architecture used for the DB28 Digitale.
Its display combines jumping hours, dragging minutes and the central spherical moon phase, with a micro ball-bearing system driving both the jumping-hour indication and the rotating minute disc.
The calibre also gathers several of De Bethune’s established technical signatures.
These include a titanium balance wheel with grey-gold inserts, a De Bethune balance spring with flat terminal curve, a silicon escape wheel and the blued triple pare-chute shock-absorbing system.
The spherical moon phase is stated to be accurate to within one lunar day every 1,112 years.
Despite the energy demands of the display, the movement runs at 4Hz and offers a five-day power reserve from a self-regulating twin-barrel system.
Finishing remains very much in De Bethune’s language, with a concave titanium mainplate, a deltoid titanium barrel bridge and hand-bevelled, hand-polished surfaces.
For this generation, the movement also incorporates the random guilloché motif on a blued titanium plate.
Details & Specifications
| Brand | De Bethune |
|---|---|
| Model | DB25 Digitale |
| Case size | 42mm |
| Case thickness | Just under 12mm |
| Case material | Polished grade 5 titanium |
| Dial | Blued titanium, silvered hand-guilloché barleycorn ring, random guilloché motif and grey-gold stars |
| Display | Jumping hours, dragging minutes and central spherical moon phase |
| Movement | In-house hand-wound Calibre DB2144V3 |
| Frequency | 4Hz |
| Power reserve | 5 days |
| Moon phase accuracy | One lunar day every 1,112 years |
| Strap | Alligator leather strap |
| Availability | Permanent collection |
| Price | CHF 106,000 excluding taxes |
The DB25 Digitale is aimed squarely at collectors who understand De Bethune’s unusual position in contemporary watchmaking.
It isn’t merely a new case for an existing idea, but a more mature expression of one of the brand’s defining display concepts.
For those drawn to independent watchmaking that treats mechanics, astronomy and design as one continuous language, this is De Bethune operating in its most recognisable register.
