De Bethune has been the focus of much attention this year.
The brand is celebrating its 20th anniversary in style. You can read about how the company was created and what it's achieved over the years in a book called De Bethune: The Art of Watchmaking, written by the journalist Arthur Touchot.
At the traveling WatchBox exhibition, you can see how the brand rapidly progressed from a classic watchmaking style with movements and components from third-party suppliers to futuristic designs and in-house movements featuring numerous patented innovations.
And the anniversary year has been wrapped up with the release of the De Bethune DB27 Titan Hawk JPS. The world usually follows the launch of an important model before spotting it on a celebrity's wrist.
What makes De Bethune's novelty interesting is that the special DB27 had already found a famous fan and new owner on the day it debuted. A post appeared on Instagram with a photo of basketball player and watch collector Micheal Jordan collecting the first watch in the limited edition series of 25 with case no. 23 to match his longtime Chicago Bulls jersey number.
De Bethune DB27 Titan Hawk JPS on Micheal Jordan's wrist
The watch is presented in black and gold "John Player Special (JPS)" livery — the colors used on race cars in the golden era of the Lotus F1 team (1970 to the early 1980s). Brazilian race car driver Emerson Fittipaldi enjoyed five victories in a Lotus Type 72D painted with the "JPS" colors, and the Lotus 98T driven by Ayrton Senna held onto the same palette.
The watch's black elements are its 43 mm case in black zirconium and canvas strap. Gold accents are added with yellow titanium inserts in the patented floating lugs, numerals and scales highlighted in gold, along with the hand-polished tips of the titanium hands.
The caseback reveals a view of caliber AUTOV2, also rendered black. You can also see the improved De Bethune balance wheel, made of titanium with added white-gold inserts. The single-barrel movement ensures a 60-hour power reserve. A contribution to these energy reserves is made by the optimized rotor, also made of titanium and white gold.