The indie Swiss watchmaker debuts a purple titanium marvel that’s fit for a prince
De Bethune doubles down on its mastery of material play with its latest release: the DB28XS Purple Rain. Here the brand nerds out with the science of lightweight titanium and the chemical reactions that occur when the metal is heated, a meticulous treatment called thermal oxidation.
To achieve this commanding new hue, De Bethune’s workshops served as a laboratory of experimentation where particles became luminous, metals emitted visible light, matter oxidised, properties changed, surfaces transformed, and unprecedented natural colours appeared—voila! A gorgeous purple tone is the result of these efforts, and it gets the brand’s signature starry treatment.
We know and love De Bethune for its rich blue colour palette in its starry models, which perfectly captures the natural allure of the night sky. However, the choice of blue was not just metaphorical or simply aesthetic. In seeking to solve technical problems of stability and chronometry during the development of new De Bethune oscillating balances, Denis Flageollet created a novel oscillator combining the soft metallic white hue of palladium with the vibrant blue of titanium. As a result, the colour blue became a trademark of the brand. To create this new purple colourway, the heating stops before reaching blue, leaving this succulent shade of purple.
De Bethune’s DB28XS is a marvel in modest sizing at 38.7mm while still incorporating the brand’s characteristic floating lug system and a random guilloché decoration on the dial. The brand exhibits its technical prowess by adjusting the calibre DB2005 to smaller proportions without compromising its chronometric precision. This is facilitated by a full titanium build, which lightens components while simultaneously reducing the negative effects of shock and acceleration.
The De Bethune DB28XS Purple Rain is available today, priced at US$99,000 in a limited run of just 25 pieces.
This story was first published on Robb Report USA
