Last week, Meta debuted its latest AI smart glasses, the Oakley Meta HSTN.
At the Oakley Meta HSTN launch, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — who has made the news as of late for wearing expensive collector-grade timepieces — wore a limited edition De Bethune DB28xs Purple Rain.
Considering Oakley is the maker of the glasses, and has a similar design language to De Bethune, and that Zuckerberg’s eccentricity meshes with the two, this was about as perfect a pairing as possible.
The De Bethune DB28xs Purple Rain (Ref. DB28XSPR) features the company’s ultralight 38.7 mm x 7.4 mm titanium case, which has been thermally oxidized to a purple color. The process utilizes a heat bluing technique that changes the chemical makeup of the exterior layer of the titanium. Notably, the purple coloring can fade over time.
De Bethune incorporated a purple version of its starry sky guilloche dial, designed to mimic the night sky. Driving the skeletonized arrow-shaped hour and minute hands is De Bethune’s manually wound 4Hz in-house caliber DB2005, which boasts an impressive 144-hour (6-day) power reserve. A black textile strap with purple contrast threading and an alligator lining completes the Purple Rain. Limited to 25 pieces, the retail price is just under $100K.
Photos by Meta/De BeThune.
