JPS. John Player Special. Three letters evoking the legendary association of black and gold. More than a brand, a whole universe, an iconic colour code; that of Team Lotus with its totally revolutionary, unbeatable cars, the most successful of their time, often cited as the most beautiful Formula 1 cars ever built! JPS is like a mechanical dream.
Fearsome and severe black paired with glorious gleaming gold made JPS a 1970s benchmark from which De Bethune drew inspiration for a new version of its DB28GS ‘JPS’ sports watch.
What a pleasure for Denis Flageollet and his team to go back to that time and indulge in “tuning” his first sports watch – the DB28GS – so as to offer a black and gold version in steel, titanium and zirconium.
Constantly refining the structural nuances hovering between polished and matt, dark grey and deep black, while sparingly adding golden accents that are in fact yellow titanium – a new opportunity to demonstrate De Bethune’s expertise in working with the oxidation of titanium and its colour palette.
Based on the observation that a sports watch must offer perfect legibility in all kinds of weather and every possible situation, the movement was developed from the outset in such a way as to light up the dial and movement from the inside.
A white light source is thus produced by an entirely mechanical means that works on a dynamo-inspired principle. No electronics, no battery, entirely mechanical. A pusher at 6 o’clock serves to provide light on demand thanks to a gear train driven by the double barrel. By means of an original miniature dynamo, this gear train supplies the energy necessary to light up the face of the watch without affecting its operation and the energy necessary for the smooth running of its movement.
The DB28 GS ‘JPS’ is black and gold, even in the dark. The De Bethune DB28GS ‘JPS’ retails for SGD 170,000 with tax.
