De Bethune is returning to their Kind of Blue concept within a new frame that combines the best of the DB28XP and the DB28 Kind of Blue to create the, you guessed it, DB28XP Kind of Blue. The new watch is trimmer than ever, and bluer than ever (insert Tobias joke here), and leans into the absolute best of DeBethune?s design language. It?s a smaller, thinner watch, but there?s still plenty of visual impact thanks to the wide frame that the lugs define. And as complex is it may look at a glance, at its core, there?s a very straightforward watch here. 

The case and dial are made of thermally blued titanium with ?microlight? pattern finish, and the result is stunning under any amount of light. It shifts between blue hues that pick up notes of purple at certain angles, and the finish creases a near liquid-metal appearance. All of this applied to the shapes and structures that De Bethune uses with the DB28 create an incredibly dramatic presence that will have you staring at the watch without a moment?s thought of the time. There are a set of hands reading off the hour and the minutes, but they feel secondary to the rest of the experience of this watch.
De Bethune is using the thin, hand wound DB2115v12 movement with their own balance wheel, which is visible at the bottom of the dial, under the arch-like structure. The XP in the name denotes that this is an extra thin (plat) watch, and indeed it stands at just 8.5mm in thickness, but this isn?t a watch about the number...