Introduced in 2006, the first edition of the DBD Digitale combines the typical jumping hours and wandering minutes with an instantaneous calendar, introducing a new calibre and a pared-back design. Taking inspiration from vintage pocketwatches, the crown is placed above 12 o'clock on the case. Of the 39 total DBD examples produced since 2006, 17 were made in this configuration.
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.
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