Ornatus-Mundi
[Zenith]
7136
Also not an owner, but a deep admirer...
but I would love to share my thoughts:
I think that the DBS is a piece of departure for De Bethune. Ok, one might argue it started with the perpetual calender DB-15 in 2004, the marvellous watch first featuring the heart-shaped movement with double barrel and their signature new titanium/platinum balance as well as their spherical moonphase indication. All this wrapped in their lively, typical "classic case".
Then came DBS:
The feat here is that De Bethune managed to enter into something completely new. This is the "technical" watch. The laboratory, the result of experiments. This watch saw the introduction of the next generations of in-house balance, the "triple parachute" schock-protection device, and features a movement with reduced complexity, but kept the moonphase. Fitting well to a experimental watch, its shows its current winding state.
The case is again an expression of what this watch is: a break with the watchmaking tradition, but still following and extending its paths. It does away with classical symmetry, and instead applies what I would call consistency. The watch looks like an artistic interpretation of a horse-shoe: Its curvature begins at the top and ends at the bottom with the characteristic De Bethune lugs. The "dial" is the movement itself - there is nothing more adequate for this technical watch.
When I was working on my molecular biology PhD thesis, my supervisor taught me something about the "conceptual beauty" of experiments. These are the "elegant" experiments, the one which reveal their brillance often only after several attemps of interpretation - then they are extremely enlightning. It took me two years to understand and appreciate it. This watch has it as well, it is comprehensivley gorgeous, it has so much to tell, it is stunning!
In Germany, a horse-shoe is a symbol of luck (that is why many cars feature it on their radiators) - I think this sas it all!
Best,
Magnus
Anyone here own a De Bethune DBS?
