For the 2024 Summer season, De Bethune releases two new iterations of the DB Eight chronograph. One in white gold case and royal blue dial, and the other in a yellow case with a chocolate dial.
Commentary in italics with release specifications.
New colours for De Bethune DB Eight
The De Bethune DB Eight in gold, Ref. DB8REWS3 and DB8REYS2 retails for USD 109,000.
Commentary
The DB Eight collection is a monopusher chronograph line by De Bethune. The lineup is characterised by a classically round shaped case with fancy lugs which are ogive shaped. The DB Eight was first released in 2023 with a model in a polished titanium case with a silver dial. This year, De Bethune adds two precious metal models to the collection. One in white gold with a blue dial, and the other in yellow gold with a chocolate hue dial.
De Bethune’s history has been dotted with numerous chronographs. The DB1 was released in 2002 as a single button chronograph with broadly the same design aesthetics as the current DB Eight. It had the movement designed by Denis Flageollet, but borrowing strongly from the architecture of the monopoussoir chronograph caliber 045MC he had developed while running Techniques Horlogères Appliquées (THA). This movement is used in the Cartier Tortue Monopoussoir CPCP ref. 2396B. He was one of the founders of THA alongside luminaries like François-Paul Journe and Vianney Halter. Then came the DB8 monopusher chronograph, which was dubbed Football Timer in 2003. This is the ancestor to today’s novelty. It had the very simplified dial layout with only one sub-dial placed at 6 o’clock, which is the minute totaliser counting up to 45 minutes for a full revolution. The movement is based on the 045MC, but modified to put the 45 minute counter at 6 o’clock in place of a running seconds and a 60 minute sub-counter found on the DB1.
De Bethune’s Chronograph story continues with the MaxiChrono DB29 Tourbillon and DB28. Again, similar design aesthetics. Same architecture for the dial layout, but with two of the most impressive and complicated chronograph movements we have ever seen. Both MaxiChronos use 3 column wheels to control the chronograph functions. Both have 5 hands: the hours, minutes, and the chronograph seconds, minutes and hours which are coaxially mounted from the center of the dial. The only difference between the DB29 and DB28 are the regulating organ, with the DB29 featuring a tourbillon.
This architecture of the DB8 with 045MC movement is retained in the new 2023 DB Eight, with running hours and minutes, central chronograph seconds, and a 60-minute counter at six o’clock is retained in the 2023 and 2024 releases. The designation changed from DB8 to DB Eight to signify that the watch now carries a new movement: De Bethune’s 31st in-house movement which is the Caliber DB3000. The movement features an instantaneously jumping minute totaliser (a la A. Lange & Söhne Datograph), and a titanium balance with gold masses, De Bethune spiral and silicon escape wheel.
Like its brethren in the DB8 and the launch edition of the DB Eight, the two novelties look like time only watches. The dial layout is deceptively simple with only a large sub-counter masquerading as minute totaliser while looking like a continuous seconds sub-dial. The totaliser is now graduated in 60 minutes.
The watch is 42.5mm but as a chronograph is deceptively thin at only 9.2mm thick. And wears smaller than the nearly 43mm diameter will suggest. Pricing wise, the gold DB Eight’s retail of USD 109k compares well with the titanium version which is priced at USD 99k.
De Bethune DB Eight Specifications
| Name | DB Eight |
| Reference | DB8REWS3 and DB8REYS2 |
| Functions | Hours, Minutes, chronograph mono pusher button with 60 s seconds counter and 60 min instantaneous minute counter |
| Movement | DB3000 |
| Type | Mechanical manual-winding caliber |
| Adjustment | Winding and setting the time by means of the crown (2 positions) Monopusher button integrated in the crown for chronograph functions |
| Caliber DB3000 | |
| Parts | 281 |
| Jewels | 31 |
| Diameter | 30mm |
| Power Reserve | 60 hours |
| Specificities | Titanium balance wheel with white gold inserts, optimized for temperature differences and air penetration De Bethune Patent (2016) “De Bethune” balance-spring with flat terminal curve De Bethune Patent (2006) Silicon escape wheel |
| Frequency | 28,800 bph |
| Adornment | All steels are hand-beveled and polished Flat beveled, flat polished and chromium-plated steel chronograph bridges Hand-snailed barrels Handmade finishing decorations |
| Display | |
| Display | Hour and minutes hands, second counter and minute counter in polished yellow gold and polished yellow titanium. |
| Dial | Royal blue or Chocolate colour, radiating guilloche 12 sectors. Silver Arabic numbers. Indication of the 60-minute counter by a barley grain engine-turned sub-dial at 6 o’clock. |
| Case & Strap | |
| Case material | Polished white gold or Polished yellow gold |
| Case diameter | 42.4mm |
| Case thickness | 9.2mm |
| Lugs | Ogival lugs |
| Crystal | Saphir crystal (1 800 Vickers hardness), with double anti-reflective coating |
| Case back | Open back Saphir crystal (1 800 Vickers hardness), with double anti-reflective coating |
| Water resistance | 3 ATM |
| Buckle | Polished white gold or polished yellow gold |
