De Bethune returns to one of its most distinctive approaches to displaying time with the DB25 Digitale. This watch deliberately moves away from conventional hands and hour markers in favour of a more contemplative interpretation of time.
Unveiled in Singapore on September 2, 2026, the new model follows in the footsteps of the Maison’s emblematic DBD. This time, De Bethune combines digital jumping hours, analogue minutes and its signature spherical moon phase within an intricately constructed blue dial inspired by a moonlit night.
The result is less about reading the time at a glance and more about making the act of checking it part of the experience.
A Night Sky Built From 82 Elements
The DB25 Digitale’s dial is constructed from 82 individual elements, with different materials, textures and finishing techniques coming together to evoke the reflections of moonlight on a tranquil river.
Traditional watchmaking and more contemporary techniques sit alongside each other. A barleycorn guilloché motif provides a classical element, while random guilloché worked into blued titanium gives the composition a more modern character.
Different heat treatments applied to the titanium create varying shades of blue across the dial. Rather than presenting one uniform colour, the surfaces interact with light to produce a deeper gradient that changes according to the viewing angle.
This visual complexity is made possible partly because De Bethune has removed the conventional central hands and hour indexes that would otherwise dominate the dial.
Three Different Ways of Reading Time
Instead, the DB25 Digitale divides its indications into three distinct forms.
The hours are shown digitally through a jumping-hour display, while the minutes are indicated through a rotating analogue disc. At the centre sits De Bethune’s spherical moon phase, providing both the focal point of the dial and its third method of displaying information.
The moon itself consists of two highly polished hemispheres: palladium on one side and flame-blued steel on the other. As it rotates, the sphere reproduces the changing phases of the moon.
It is not merely decorative. De Bethune says its mechanism is sufficiently precise that the indication deviates by only one lunar day every 1,112 years.
Underneath the dial, a sophisticated micro ball-bearing system operates both the jumping-hour mechanism and rotating minute disc, helping turn the unconventional display into a functional timekeeping system.
DB2144V3 Movement Brings the Craftsmanship to the Back
Turning the DB25 Digitale over reveals the third-generation Calibre DB2144V3, an in-house De Bethune movement visible through the sapphire crystal case-back.
For the first time, De Bethune has extended the same random guilloché language found on the dial onto the movement’s deltoid bridge, creating a visual connection between the front and back of the watch.
The movement also brings together several of the manufacture’s technical developments. These include a self-regulating twin barrel, De Bethune’s latest titanium-and-grey-gold balance wheel and its proprietary balance spring with a flat terminal curve.
Its triple parachute system provides shock protection, another example of De Bethune combining its highly decorative approach with mechanical engineering beneath the surface.
A Watch Designed to Be Contemplated
As De Bethune co-founder and master watchmaker Denis Flageollet puts it, the intention is to create a space where “time is no longer something you register – it becomes something you contemplate.”
That philosophy explains the name Time Contemplated particularly well. The jumping hours provide precision, the rotating minutes preserve a sense of motion, while the slowly changing spherical moon places those passing hours within a much longer celestial cycle.
The De Bethune DB25 Digitale retails for S$185,000 in Singapore, including tax.
