Comments:
Nico’s wonderful photos of wonderful watches are a true pleasure to contemplate. Thank you.
It's a real departure for the company
Much like the odd but charismatic mid-career work of Frank Lloyd Wright, the DB20-24 series was an odd tangent in De Bethune's design journey. They have almost nothing in common with the prior and subsequent De Bethune models, and they're sort of a design island from a period when DB was toying with aggressively larger watches and styles. The watches were rated at 48mm. This was 2006, after all, and the "big watch" was at its peak of popularity within the industry.
De Bethune watches prior and subsequent maintained at least some form - however slight - of the conical lug end first trialed on the DB1 and still present on almost all of the current models. The DB20-24 had none of this. However, they're charmingly rugged watches that wear surprisingly thin.
There's also some technical interest in the series. This was the beginning of automatic winding for De Bethune. Other notable refinements include the DB20's jump hour GMT, its shock-protected winding rotor bearing, the DB21's "Maxichrono" concept with five co-axial hands, the DB22's six days of power reserve, and the DB24's unique user-adjustable winding energy mechanism - like RM, but you can control it. And, while not widely acknowledged, these were 200-meter watches and De Bethune's first significantly water resistant models. I have a few friends who thought long and hard about the size, bought DB22s, and love them. Largely due to obscurity and size, these remain among most accessible points of entry to the brand.
Best Regards,
Tim
