The DB Kind of Two GMT “Season Three” by Swizz Beatz is the latest chapter of a continuing creative collaboration between the Grammy Award-winning artist and De Bethune.
Swizz Beatz first approached De Bethune in 2020, asking the brand if they would be interested in a collaboration. When De Bethune agreed, he challenged the brand to create a watch “with a visionary concept centered on transparency and light.” Undaunted by Beatz’ directive, De Bethune met the challenge and crafted the DW5 watch, which is composed, in part, of seven sapphire crystal elements. Not content to stop there, Beatz and De Bethune worked on a second collab watch, the DBD Season 2, which features a burgundy Côtes de Gèneve decorated dial and a zirconium case. Now, the highly anticipated Season 3 timepiece has arrived.
Season 3
The DB Kind of Two GMT Season 3 watch offers two distinct dials, which can be viewed by flipping the watch’s case over. The Classic Face, as De Bethune calls it, features blued accents on the dial and blued modified Breguet-style hour and minute hands. The second hand jumps ahead each second, unlike standard mechanical watches which have a smooth-moving, sweeping second hand. “The deadbeat is perfectly centered on each second like a quartz watch would be,” says the 1916 Company’s global watch specialist Tim Mosso, “but it’s entirely mechanical in its operation, which you can see on the reverse side.” The Classic Face displays the time in the second, or GMT, time zone.
Modern Times
The watch’s flip side, the “Contemporary Face” has a skeletonized reverse dial that allows for a clear view of the watch’s movement and displays the time in a different format. The hour hand, crafted of blued steel, sits at the 6 o’clock position, while the minute hand, also crafted of blued steel, advances around the periphery of the dial. “We have a second time zone that is displayed by a small hour at the base of the dial and a rotating orbital minute hand at the edge,” Mosso says.
The Beauty in the Details
The movement’s triangle-shaped bridge takes center stage on the contemporary dial, with its matte black finish providing a perfect contrast to the blue hour and minute hands. It also serves to highlight the gold accents on the hour and minute hands and the dual central wheels that drive the jumping seconds mechanism. “At the center, we have a gold set of wheels – each is 14 karat gold – that are associated with the deadbeat complication on the obverse,” Mosso explains.
A Skeletonized Reverse Dial
“We have a skeletonized reverse dial, that shows the barrels underneath that contain the mainsprings,” Mosso says, allowing for “an excellent view of the double-barreled movement. Extensive internal skeletonization, blackening, beveling, and satination with microlight engraving, so it is decorated within and without.”
For added comfort, the watch features blackened zirconium lugs which are ergonomically designed to shape themselves to your wrist. The watch’s strap is an “infinitely adjustable velcro strap,” says Mosso, “so if you hate to be in between holes on a strap, this will get you the perfect size, there are no holes.”
You may run into a hole, though, if you’d like to buy this watch. It’s a limited edition of just 10 pieces. So is Season 3 the Finale, or is there a Season 4 on the horizon? Stay tuned.