De Bethune’s Sensoriel Chronometry Project: Customised Watch For Your Personal Wear

The watch industry constantly innovates and offers aficionados something novel. And this time it’s a first for the watch industry. Everything from location and velocity to the effects of shocks and the effects of humidity and pressure at sea level... To begin, upon purchasing a DB28GS Grand Bleu, select buyers will be given the option to wear a test watch outfitted with a variety of sensors that can record the wearer's surroundings and actions.

For the De Bethune Chronometry Workshop in Switzerland to analyze the sort of "wear" and fine-tune the timepiece precisely for the owner, all they need is two weeks of data from the test watch's wearer.

The De Bethune Manufacture in L'Auberson houses a robot arm specifically designed for this purpose. This state-of-the-art equipment, which is housed in an atmospheric chamber, will receive all the data produced by the test watch's sensors and will use this information to faithfully mimic the wearer's motions in their actual surroundings.

De Bethune's unique chronometric (precise timekeeping) modification can be made by simulating the watch's future environment before it is shipped to its owner.

De Bethune's radical new approach to chronometry The Master Watchmaker and co-founder of De Bethune, Denis Flageollet, is always looking for ways to improve his products' already impeccable accuracy. His program, which he has termed the "Sensoriel Chronometry Project," paves the door for an innovative approach to time measurement.

When it comes to adjusting watches, the rest of the industry, including the most prestigious certifications, uses averages and static tests that still don't account for the dynamic wear and the daily constraints that are unique to each watch. However, De Bethune has opted for a truly customized and unique adjustment based on wear that is not theoretical and dictated by a machine, but rather on the actual conditions that will befall each of its watches.

Every timepiece that has undergone a custom chronometric adjustment will be sent a report specific to that timepiece, outlining all of the information that was used to achieve optimal timekeeping accuracy. For example, if a customer wants an adjustment after purchasing a De Bethune watch, the company will have them wear a test watch for two weeks.

The De Bethune Chronometry Workshop will collect the roughly 2'000'000 data points per hour generated by each test watch and add them to a valuable database where they may analyze the real-world limitations to which each timepiece is subjected and fine-tune them accordingly.

There will be periodic data collection from the test watches. The only particular care required is that the wearer uses the test watch under the same conditions as their final watch and charges it on a regular basis using a standard charging dock or USB connection.

Finally, as the Manufacture De Bethune and Denis Flageollet's team have kept to a human-scale level, it goes without saying that this service is part of a highly exclusive context of the brand's production and will benefit from a steady ramp-up, beginning with a few timepieces every year.

Concern for the fine-tuning of each watch indicates the depth of dedication that De Bethune invests in creating them, and it's also explicable by the profound emotional bonds that form between each De Bethune owner and his or her timepiece. Beyond its functional use as a timepiece, a De Bethune is an incredibly meaningful and one-of-a-kind accessory.

De Bethune is uncompromising in the pursuit of its projects and its resolutely futuristic vision of the Art of Watchmaking. It is free-thinking, driven by an innovative reason for being, and constantly challenging itself - all for the intimate and intact pleasure of rethinking approaches, improving, optimizing, and inventing. Denis Flageollet has a high regard for precision, and it was this level of expertise that allowed him to fully express his creativity and expand his horizons.