A Tiny Watch Brand You’ve Never Heard of Is Dominating the U.S. Open

Independent brand De Bethune is making its presence known on the court.

closeup of the dial on a de bethune watch

By Johnny Brayson

Published September 6, 2024

·

Updated September 6, 2024

Every product is carefully selected by our editors. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more

The luxury watch space is crowded, and getting more crowded all the time.

You’ve got heavy-hitting independents like Breitling, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Richard Mille; huge conglomerates in Swatch Group, Richemont, and LVMH with around two dozen brands under their collective umbrellas and, of course, the ever-dominant Rolex corporation.

Fighting for air in this industry can be difficult for small independent brands, but one way to gain a lot of eyeballs in a hurry is through sports partnerships and athlete ambassadors.

Richard Mille released its first watch in 2001, 162 years after Patek Philippe, and yet it already ranks as the sixth-best Swiss watch brand in terms of revenue — just one spot behind Patek. RM’s quick success can partly be attributed to its groundbreaking on-field and on-court sports presence.

rafa nadal plays tennis while wearing a richard mille watch — Rafael Nadal, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, normalized the act of wearing a luxury watch while competing.

Brand ambassadors like tennis legend Rafa Nadal and NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. have broken with tradition by performing at the highest levels in their respective sports while wearing a luxury watch from Richard Mille, which has helped earn the brand its reputation as an innovator in the sports watch genre while also greatly heightening its visibility as a brand.

Over the past week at the U.S. Open, I’ve noticed another high-end independent watch brand piling up victories on the wrists of several top-performing athletes. It’s not a brand one associates with sports or that most people have even heard of, but that seems destined to change soon.

De Bethune Is the New King of the Court

Even by small independent luxury watch brand standards, De Bethune is pretty tiny and exclusive. It produces between 150 and 250 watches per year — far fewer than Richard Mille’s annual output of over 5,000 watches — with prices ranging from around $50,000 on the low end to over $300,000 on the high end.

purple de bethune watch — De Bethune’s wild and extravagant watches, like this year’s DB28 xs Purple Rain, sure don’t seem like your typical sports watch.

As a result, De Bethune has, up to this point, largely functioned as an “if you know, you know” type of brand among watch nerds and high-value collectors. The Geneva-based watchmaker, which was founded just 22 years ago, has carved out a sterling reputation for its avant-garde case shapes, its embracement of cutting-edge technologies and its world-class mastery of horological craftsmanship.

But De Bethune has also begun to carve out a name for itself as a favorite among pro athletes. The brand’s watches have been spotted on the wrists of NBA players Kyle Kuzma and Tyrese Maxey, and former New York Giant Michael Strahan is a known fan of the brand — he even wore one to the edge of space on a trip with Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin three years ago.

The athlete who’s arguably most associated with De Bethune is American tennis star Tommy Paul. The current world #14 men’s player became an official brand ambassador at Wimbledon last year and has been known to make an appearance on De Bethune’s Instagram from time to time.

tommy paul plays tennis while wearing a de bethune watch — Tommy Paul put in a solid performance at this year’s U.S. Open with a De Bethune on his wrist.

As expected, Paul wore a De Bethune on the court throughout his performance this year in Flushing Meadows as he reached the Round of 16 before falling to number 1 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy. Paul’s performance certainly helped bring De Bethune some visibility, but it’s in the women’s singles tournament where the brand has really turned heads.

American Emma Navarro, the 13 seed, wore her De Bethune throughout her Cinderella run to the women’s semifinals. She appears to have first begun wearing the brand last month at the National Bank Open in Toronto, but her performance at this month’s Grand Slam in New York has certainly received more attention.

Also wearing De Bethune at the Open is 6 seed and fellow American Jessie Pegula, who will compete for her first Grand Slam trophy in the women’s final today with a De Bethune on her wrist. Pegula has been wearing the brand on the court for the past year as an ambassador.

jess pegula plays tennis while wearing a de bethune watch — Jess Pegula has worn the 1-of-25 De Bethune Purple Rain at this year’s open, all the way to the women’s final.

Interestingly, all three athletes have worn a version of the De Bethune DB28 xs at the tournament — which is arguably the closest thing the brand has to a flagship model.

Paul and Navarro both wore the DB28 xs Starry Seas, which was released last year as the first watch to feature a random guilloche titanium dial. The blued titanium dial is patterned to look like, well, a starry sea. It retails for $90,000 and is theoretically purchasable.

emma navarro plays tennis while wearing a de bethune watch — Navarro’s underdog semifinals run at the Open was accompanied by a De Bethune DB28 xs Starry Seas.

Pegula, meanwhile, opted for the DB28 xs Purple Rain. Launched earlier this year as a limited edition of just 25 units, the $99,000 watch is recognizable for the brilliant purple color of its titanium case and dial, an effect achieved by thermal oxidation.

Both styles feature a lightweight and compact 39mm case made of Grade 5 titanium and De Bethune’s patented floating lugs system where the lugs pivot from the center of the case, allowing for a more mobile and ergonomic case.

closeup of the escapement on a de bethune watch movement — De Bethune’s proprietary pare-chute anti-shock system makes it surprisingly suitable for impact-heavy sports like tennis.

The crown is located at 12 o’clock for even greater comfort and the hand-wound in-house Cal. DB2005 movement is protected by the brand’s proprietary triple pare-chute anti-shock system, which offers two additional levels of shock protection compared to standard mechanical watch movements. All of these features make the DB28 a surprisingly appropriate sports watch for playing tennis.

These high-profile De Bethune appearances at the 2024 U.S. Open have put the brand in the spotlight like never before, and it will be interesting to see if De Bethune can keep this momentum going after the U.S. Open concludes.

Hey, the NFL season is just beginning. It worked for Richard Mille.