De Bethune DB25xs Sand Winds debuts with desert-yellow titanium dial

De Bethune added the DB25xs Sand Winds to its press page on June 24, and the watch’s desert-yellow titanium dial is the whole story. The 35-piece limited edition takes one of the brand’s most recognizable shapes and gives it a warmer, more tactile face, the kind of detail that makes a serious collector stop and look twice.

The dial combines random guilloché with natural oxidative heat treatment on titanium, a technique De Bethune uses to create a yellow surface that reads like ripples across sand. The 40 mm grade 5 titanium case keeps the watch in the brand’s restrained, technical lane, with hand-polished finishing, hollowed-out tapered lugs for comfort and a sapphire crystal treated with anti-glare coating on both sides. It comes on a lined brown alligator leather strap with a polished titanium pin buckle, which keeps the palette disciplined rather than flashy.

Inside sits the hand-wound DB2005 movement, visible through the caseback and beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour. De Bethune fitted it with a self-regulating twin barrel for a constant six-day power reserve, plus a titanium balance wheel with white gold inserts, a flat terminal curve balance spring, a triple pare-chute shock-absorbing system and a silicon wheel. That is a lot of engineering for a watch this visually soft-spoken, and it is exactly why it lands as a gift for someone who already knows the difference between decoration and finishing.

The DB25 line dates to 2007, while the DBxs family arrived in 2025 as the 40 mm “extra small” version of the DB25. This Sand Winds release does not reinvent the architecture; it gives a known collector platform a new dial identity and a tighter edition count. That is the appeal here. It feels fresh without chasing novelty for its own sake, which is rarer in high horology than another precious metal case or another dial color.

Pricing backs that up. The DB25xs Sand Winds will retail for CHF 70,000 before taxes, putting it squarely in the zone for a top-tier anniversary, retirement or milestone gift aimed at a buyer who wants something connoisseur-grade rather than broadly recognizable. For the collector who values artisanal titanium work, six-day autonomy and a small run of 35 pieces, this is the kind of watch that feels personal the moment it lands on the wrist.