De Bethune DB28XP Steel Wheels Tourbillon

Swiss independent watchmaker De Bethune launched a new version of its Steel Wheels Tourbillon today in Hong Kong.

Despite its name, the DB28XP Steel Wheels Tourbillon comes in a titanium case. “Steel Wheels” refers to the prominent stainless steel gear train wheels visible on the dial side. However, note that the free-sprung balance wheel and the tourbillon cage are made of lightweight titanium, like the case.

Featuring a 43 mm x 9.1 mm polished grade 5 titanium case with De Bethune’s hollowed-out, patented floating lugs, the watch is lightweight and ergonomically to wear comfortably on a broad variety of wrist sizes.

Dominated by its Star Trek-esque delta-shaped bridge in the center of the dial, the futuristic design is the opposite of a vintage-inspired timepiece.

The centrally mounted De Thune skeleton arrow-shaped hour and minute hands point to the graduated inner minute ring made of circular satin-finished titanium and the blued outer hour ring made in titanium with blued microlight decoration and polished hour markers.

At 6, a patented 30-second (not the typical 60-second variety), with a 30-second ring in circular satin-finished titanium, indicates the seconds.

The barrel bridge is decorated with polished beveling and blued microlight decoration, the triangular central bridge is made of polished titanium, and the dial’s base is also crafted from titanium that’s been polished.

De Bethune’s 30 mm diameter in-house caliber DB2009v6 has 40 jewels and 275 total components and beats at a high rate of 5Hz. Driving the gears, and hands is a self-regulating twin mainspring (based on a De Bethune patent from 2004) good for 5 days (120 hours), that’s manually wound using the crown and offers a power reserve indicator on the back.

The blue titanium balance with white gold inserts is optimized for temperature differences and air penetration (based on a De Bethune patent 2016). The movement uses a “De Bethune” balance spring with flat terminal curve (De Bethune Patent 2006) and a silicon escape wheel. Finally, the De Bethune tourbillon cage (patented 2008) has a unique ultra-light titanium design.

Hand-crafted finishing continues throughout and the twin barrels are adorned with sailing, and feature blued microlight titanium inserts and polished blued beveling.

The DB28XP Steel Wheels Tourbillon (Ref. DB28XPSWT) retail price is $210,000 and is limited to 10 pieces. The watch is water-resistant to 30 meters and comes with a blue alligator leather strap or a blue textile strap.

Learn more at De Bethune.

Photos by De Bethune.