The De Bethune DB28 is an absolutely insane watch. As I found out for myself in Geneva earlier this year, the watch?s large proportions play tricks on you: it?s enormous to the eye, but incredibly light on the wrist thanks to the titanium case construction and airy design with those patented hollowed out, articulating lugs. Even though this watch is the ultimate example of ?It actually wears a lot smaller?? I think it?s understandable that collectors would call for a version that?s actually smaller, and that?s what De Bethune has delivered with the new DB28xs Starry Seas. This is essentially a scaled down version of the DB28 that incorporates a fantastic and first of its kind dial that applies guilloche in an entirely new way. 

The centerpiece here is certainly the dial, which is made from heat blued titanium, taking on the dramatic bright blue shade that has become a De Bethune hallmark of sorts. The decoration is what De Bethune refers to as ?random guilloche,? and they say this is the first time this technique has been used in a watch dial design. The cumulative effect is a dial that looks like ocean waves in motion, and it?s been accented with small white gold ?stars? to create the impression of the night sky being reflected off the surface of a body of water. It?s a natural extension of other ?Starry? De Bethune references, which typically depict a night sky view.
The case will be familiar to those who know the DB28 (the lucky few). It?s the same eye-...