This DB25 "Quetzalcoatl"* marries watchmaking craft with artful engraving and ancient mythology. Released in 2015, the watch was limited to just 20 pieces. The feathered snake in the centre representing Quetzalcoatl is created from solid gold and hand-engraved by Michèle Rothen, a master engraver based in Le Locle. The snake's head and tail indicate the hours and minutes, shifting position over the course of the day and giving the wearer a different view with each glance.
A DESIRE FOR TOTAL INDEPENDENCE
Perched in the Jura Mountains, hugging the border with France, is the small hamlet of L’Auberson, home of De Bethune. This is where the brand was born in 2002 when David Zanetta, an Italian collector and dealer of art and vintage watches, joined forces with Denis Flageollet, a fourth-generation watchmaker from France.
Right from the very first day, 22 April 2002, they made their intentions for the manufacture known. Instead of putting their own names on the dial, as so many of their contemporaries at the time were doing, the duo looked to the past for inspiration. They named it after Chevalier De Bethune, the 18th-century French nobleman and revolutionary escapement designer. It was fitting – it indicated the importance the duo placed on the history of classical watchmaking and the kind of inventiveness that had driven the brand’s namesake. Both Zanetta and Flageollet were convinced right from the start that what they were trying to do could not amount to just another watch brand; it had to be a manufacture in the truest sense of the word.
“The idea at the beginning of the project was to start with a blank page. What I really wanted was to enjoy complete independence. The idea behind the project that David Zanetta and I initiated was to create watches that would allow people to discover the great history of watchmaking.”
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