Another boutique brand with a very limited production and very expensive prices, De Bethune offered up just a handful of new pieces, including a smaller (40-mm) version of its DB25, but the headliners were a pair of very distinctive new models. The DB28 Skybridge boasts a dial made of flame-blued, mirror-polished titanium with a star field made up of white-gold and diamond stars. De Bethune’s trademark 3D spherical moon-phase completes the stellar motif.
The other new De Bethune (and maybe the prettiest piece I was able to put on my wrist this week) is the DB16 Tourbillon Regulator with deadbeat seconds and a perpetual calendar. The case has De Bethune’s familiar cone-shaped lugs, the dial sports a gorgeous guilloché pattern, and the movement (visible through the back) features a lightweight tourbillon constructed of titanium and silicon.
Among the standouts at the GTE show was H. Moser & Cie., a favorite of many “in-the-know” watch collectors and another brand with a very small annual production. The watches — including the movements and even the hairsprings — are made in the Swiss town of Schaffhausen, a name familiar to fans of the more well-known IWC. Moser, which has recently come into the hands of new ownership, is looking to make a bigger play in the U.S. market this year. Most of the models shown at the GTE are existing models, but one notable novelty was the first version of the brand’s elegantly simple perpetual calendar model with its proprietary “fume” dial, which I’m wrist modeling in the photo directly below; the lineup of watches is beneath that photo.
We’ve just scratched the surface with these brief updates from the Geneva fairs. Keep watching WatchTime.com and the WatchTime blog for lots more on these and many other watches making their debut this year.
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