Basketball player Michael Jordan spotted wearing a De Bethune

Michael Jordan, six-time NBA champion and the single most marketable athlete in sports history, has been photographed receiving the first De Bethune DB27 Titan Hawk JPS — specifically piece number 23 of a 25-piece limited edition. The numerical alignment with his retired Chicago Bulls jersey is the kind of collector narrative that watch enthusiasts will be discussing for years.

The De Bethune DB27 Titan Hawk JPS reference DB27V2JPS is built around the manufacture's in-house calibre DB2019, a self-winding movement running at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a silicon balance wheel and De Bethune's signature spherical moon-phase display. The 43 mm case pairs black zirconium — an exceptionally hard ceramic-like material prized for its scratch resistance and deep non-reflective finish — with grade-5 yellow titanium inserts on the lugs and bezel. The resulting two-tone geometry directly references the legendary John Player Special livery: the matte black and gold colour scheme that defined the Lotus Formula 1 team from 1972 through 1986, an era that produced champions Emerson Fittipaldi, Jochen Rindt posthumously, and Mario Andretti.

For serious De Bethune collectors, the DB27 platform has long represented the brand's most wearable expression of its avant-garde technical vocabulary. The Titan Hawk lineage introduced angular, faceted case architecture that departs from the flowing forms of the DB25 or DB28, giving the piece a more aggressive, contemporary personality. At 25 examples worldwide, the JPS variant sits comfortably among the most tightly restricted references the Le Locle manufacture has ever released.

Jordan's relationship with luxury watches is well documented — he has worn Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, and Audemars Piguet across decades of public appearances. His receipt of DB27V2JPS number 23 signals genuine personal engagement rather than a standard brand placement, consistent with De Bethune's selective approach to ambassadorial partnerships.

Retail pricing for the DB27 Titan Hawk JPS sits in the high five-figure to low six-figure range consistent with De Bethune's positioning between established grandes maisons and pure independent watchmaking. On the secondary market, ultra-limited De Bethune references with strong narrative hooks have consistently commanded premiums of 30 to 60 percent above list, and the Jordan provenance on piece 23 will almost certainly make that specific example untradeable at any rational multiple.