SJX Watches
Hands On: De Bethune DB25 Monopusher Chronograph
De Bethune once again has a single-button chronograph to its line-up with the compact DB25 Monopusher Chronograph. Styled after the DB8 from the brand’s early years, the DB25 chronograph has a smaller case but a larger, more refined movement. Importantly, it is most accessible chronographs from the brand in recent memory, both in size and price. Initial Thoughts I hold De Bethune in high regard for its technical ambition and an idiosyncratic design language that blends aesthetic codes from the 18th and 23rd centuries. The distinctive aesthetics were largely the brainchild of cofounder Davide Zanetta, who unfortunately departed the brand several years ago. Fortunately, however, both traits are alive and well in the DB25 Monopusher Chronograph. For several years the brand lacked a conventional chronograph, and I see the new DB25 as the brand’s long-term solution to that problem. Likely shaped by feedback on the recent DB Eight, the DB25 Monopusher has everything it needs to be a staple of the brand’s line-up – moderate sizing, good looks, and complementary calibre. Though based on the brand’s prior chronograph movements, the DB3000 inside the DB25 is interesting in several respects. For one, it retains the oscillating pinion found in the long-ago DB1. The oscillating pinion isn’t well regarded by collectors, seen as less advanced than a vertical clutch and without the theatre of a horizontal coupling. It is possible to make a handsome chronograph with an oscillat...
