Calendar and Moonphase Award 2022: De Bethune DB25 Perpetual Calendar 40mm

It has been a phenomenal year for the watch world. To round off 2022, we are celebrating the hits, the wonders, the visionaries and all the people in watchmaking who have made it so memorable in our annual Revolution Awards and Power Lists.

Celestial complications, like the moon phase and calendar appear because they speak to the heart of what watchmaking is, and this year the De Bethune DB25 Perpetual Calendar 40mm is the best example of the type. 

Because so much of the in-house movement development in the Swiss watch industry had been initiated in the first decade of the new millennium, we oftentimes find that complicated watches feature movements that are just a touch too large for current tastes. But De Bethune, which in two years has gone from the watch world’s best insider’s secret to one of the hottest independent watch brands on the planet, is never content to dwell in the past. As such, the genius Denis Flageollet took it upon himself to redesign the caliber DB2324 so that it would fit perfectly in a 40mm watch case.