De Bethune holds a special place not only in the hearts of collectors but also in the history of contemporary independent brands.

The brainchild of Davide Zanetta, a collector of vintage timepieces and art, and Denis Flageollet, a genius watchmaker who started his career restoring vintage timepieces and developing highly complicated movements for others, the De Bethune brand was created in 2002 to manufacture 21st century watches rooted in traditional horology. In just over 15 years his team of watchmakers, engineers, and designers have developed over 30 in-house movements incorporating many technical inventions based on the spirit of 18th century watchmaking.

Their collection of handcrafted timepieces include complicated watches with tourbillon, perpetual calendars, deadbeat seconds, and like the present DB24, an ingenious automatic winding system that allows an owner to tailor winding to their own activity levels. The mechanism allows the wearer to adjust the speed ratio of the rotor based on the movement generated by the wearer’s arm. A lever in the winding crown allows the winding mode to be set to either “sport”, “normal” or “slow”, allowing the rotor to swing with more or less inertia based on activity, thus making the watch an ideal sports timepiece.

Featuring an oversized, 48mm diameter case in titanium, it is light and comfortable to wear. Its dial, fitted with highly legible hands with a futuristic aesthetic, indicates the six-day power reserve at the 12 o’clock position. Additionally, the movement features a patented triple pare-chute shock absorbing system with titanium bridge and ultralight balance wheel providing for a high degree of shock resistance.

The present example is in new condition, and accompanied with its certificate of origin and presentation box . It is a wonderful example of the innovative timepieces being produced by independent watchmakers and is a wonderful addition to any collection.