De Bethune

De Bethune was born in 2002 from the meeting of David Zanetta, an art and watch collector, and Denis Flageollet, a watchmaker descended from a family of master craftsmen active in the Vallée de Joux. The two shared the same basic idea: traditional watchmaking can remain authentically artisanal only if it accepts being reinvented with the tools and materials of its own time. The name chosen for the manufacture pays tribute to the Chevalier de Béthune, an eighteenth-century naval officer and watchmaking innovator credited with developing a well-known escapement, whom the founders regard as a forerunner of their own approach.

From its earliest years, the small manufacture, with workshop and offices united under one roof in L'Auberson, stood out for a pace of innovation far out of proportion to its size: in its first decade alone, De Bethune filed numerous patents, developed over a dozen in-house calibers and introduced several solutions never before seen on a wristwatch, including a new conception of the balance wheel, natural titanium bluing, and a patented spherical moon. This work was recognized in 2011 with the Aiguille d'Or, the top prize of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève.

In later years, with Pierre Jacques joining Zanetta and Flageollet at the helm of the company, De Bethune consolidated its profile as a fully vertical manufacture, able to produce balance wheels, hairsprings, cases and finishing in-house. Production remains deliberately limited — a few hundred pieces a year, aimed at a small circle of collectors and high-watchmaking enthusiasts — while the catalogue is built around a contained number of lines, each conceived as a platform for exploring new complications rather than as a simple stylistic variation.