SJX Watches
Hands-On: De Bethune DB28 Steel Wheels Blue “The Hour Glass”
De Bethune is the latest amongst a number of watchmakers to take the covers off a commemorative edition to mark the 40th anniversary of Singapore watch retail powerhouse The Hour Glass. For the occasion, De Bethune has put together a variant of its signature DB28 with sprung lugs that’s entirely clad in brilliant, blued titanium. First unveiled in polished titanium in 2018, the Steel Wheels is essentially a DB28 wearing a little less. A partially open-worked dial – which is actually the delta-shaped barrel bridge – reveals its pair of skeletonised barrels and gears. While the original Steel Wheels captures the essence of De Bethune, combining its trademark design with the brand’s fundamental technical innovations, it was lacking a generous dose of blued titanium, a gorgeous, heat-treated alloy that is synonymous with the brand. Colour consistency That has now been rectified with the DB28 Steel Wheels Blue, arguably the purest – and bluest – distillation of the brand’s core values and technical achievements. It features an intense, mirror-polished, blued titanium case and dial that form a striking contrast against the exposed inner mechanics. Though blued titanium is also used by other brands today, De Bethune was amongst the first to mirror-polish its titanium cases and more crucially, started using heat treatment to blue titanium way back in 2006. An example of an early De Bethune using blued titanium, a DB25L from 2010 with a blued dial...
