Watch Paparazzi

Rapper Swizz Beats spotted wearing De Bethune

Swizz Beats has never been a conventional watch collector, and the De Bethune DBD Digital 'Season 2' is emphatically not a conventional watch. Spotted at what appears to be a bar or restaurant setting, the Grammy-winning producer and art-world fixture was wearing the piece on a matching deep burgundy textile strap, the case just visible at his wrist — a sighting that confirms his continued alignment with the most experimental corner of independent watchmaking.

The DBD Digital is De Bethune's most radical departure from its signature star-wheel and moon-phase aesthetic. Where the Geneva manufacture built its reputation on celestial complications and polished titanium, the DBD Digital strips time-telling down to pure information architecture. The dial — here in an arresting burgundy with vertical Côtes de Genève ribbing — presents a triple in-line calendar at 12 o'clock showing day, date, and month via retrograde or jumping disc mechanisms, with jumping hours indicated by a central aperture and a linear sweep arc for the minutes below. There are no hands. The zirconium case, a material prized for its extreme hardness and distinctive charcoal-grey tone, adds a technical credibility that titanium alone couldn't deliver.

De Bethune introduced the DBD Digital as a statement piece within its collection — a watch that speaks to collectors who have moved beyond movement decoration and seek genuine conceptual innovation in how a watch communicates time. The 'Season 2' iteration refined the dial architecture and introduced new dial color executions, with the burgundy version among the most visually cohesive. Production volumes are extremely limited, consistent with De Bethune's broader output of only a few hundred pieces annually across all references.

Swizz Beats has worn Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, and Audemars Piguet in the past, but his more recent acquisitions have leaned toward independent maisons — Urwerk, H. Moser & Cie, and now De Bethune. It signals a collector maturing past trophies toward genuine horological curiosity.

Retail pricing for DBD Digital references sits firmly in six-figure territory, and grey market availability is essentially nonexistent — this is a watch you acquire through the manufacture or a select authorized relationship, full stop.