De Bethune DB28 Steel Wheels Pairs Openworked Movement With Ultra-Thin Case

De Bethune has paired its DB28 Steel Wheels movement with its extra-flat DB28XP titanium case for a limited edition of just 25 pieces.

The Steel Wheels design was revealed in 2018, a movement designed to not only carry the codes of the Swiss independent watchmaker, but reveal more of the architecture of the movement, while De Bethune’s contribution to ultra-thin watchmaking – the DB28XP – appeared two years later.

The combination of the two make for one of the most revealing watches in De Bethune’s collection, playing with light and shadow to amplify the sense depth, despite a front-to-back thickness of just 7.2mm. The manually wound movement’s barrels, ratchet wheels and central delta-shaped bridge have all been open-worked to offer a better view of the mechanism. The Calibre 2115v11 movement shows off its titanium balance wheel at the six o’clock position, which is fitted with small white gold weights to improve performance.

The chapter ring is set with 12 polished, blued titanium spheres serving as hour markers, while the hour and minute hands are made of blued titanium. De Bethune has also tweaked the shape of the balance spring, making the movement 20% more power efficient and increasing the power reserve to six days.

The DB28 Steel Wheels also features De Bethune’s floating lug system, pivoted on either side of the grade 5 titanium case, allowing it to flex depending on the size and movement of the wearer’s wrist. The 25-piece individually numbered limited edition is out now.

In other watch news, Girard-Perregaux develops chronograph with Aston Martin‘s F1 team.