Mark Zuckerberg may have spent years building his public image around basic T-shirts and a rather understated style, but his taste in watches is clearly on another level. In a recent appearance, the billionaire drew attention by wearing a $225,000 timepiece — a watch that would hardly go unnoticed.
Zuckerberg’s watch is a De Bethune DB28xs Kind of Blue Tourbillon, a piece of haute horlogerie almost entirely dominated by an intense metallic blue tone.
According to Luxurylaunches, Zuckerberg was seen wearing the model during an appearance on the Tiff in Tech channel while discussing Muse, Meta’s autonomous artificial intelligence agent.
Despite the impressive price and mechanical complexity, another detail makes the choice particularly interesting: Zuckerberg has red-green color blindness and has previously revealed that blue is the color he can see most clearly.
Blue has a long-standing connection with Mark Zuckerberg
The businessman’s relationship with the color did not begin with his six-figure watch.
In a profile published by The New Yorker in 2010, Zuckerberg explained why blue became one of the colors most closely associated with Facebook. At the time, he said he could see all shades of blue.
More than a decade later, the color remains strongly linked to the universe of companies led by the billionaire.
That is why the DB28xs Kind of Blue Tourbillon seems like a particularly fitting choice for his collection: few watches could take the color blue as seriously as this one.
Why does the watch have such a distinctive shade of blue?
The model’s almost futuristic appearance is not simply the result of paint.
The watch features a 38.7 mm case made from mirror-polished Grade 5 titanium. To achieve its distinctive color, De Bethune uses a carefully controlled thermal oxidation process.
The treatment creates an extremely thin oxide layer on the titanium. The way light interacts with this surface produces the metallic effect, causing the color to shift between an electric cobalt blue and a deeper navy blue depending on the environment and viewing angle.
The process requires enormous precision. Even tiny screws can be discarded if they fail to achieve exactly the same shade as the other components.
According to the publication, Denis Flageollet, co-founder and technical head of De Bethune, reportedly discovered the effect while experimenting with titanium balance wheels subjected to temperatures above 700°C.
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The mechanics help explain the $225,000 price tag
The spectacle does not end with its appearance.
Inside the watch is the hand-wound DB2009V7 movement, equipped with a tourbillon cage made up of 63 components.
The entire assembly weighs just 0.18 grams.
The tourbillon completes one rotation every 30 seconds, twice as fast as the traditional one-minute cycle commonly found in this type of complication.
The mechanism also operates at a high frequency of 5 Hz and offers an impressive five-day power reserve thanks to two self-regulating barrels.
Another achievement by the manufacturer was fitting all this engineering into an architecture just 8 mm thick. It is the first time the brand’s tourbillon has appeared inside the compact DB28xs format.
A six-figure watch with personal meaning
It is precisely the combination of engineering, exclusivity and personal history that makes Zuckerberg’s choice different from simply wearing an expensive watch.
The $225,000 model would already stand out because of its construction and intense blue finish. On the wrist of someone known to have a particular connection with the color, however, the accessory gains another layer of meaning.
While Zuckerberg spoke about the future of artificial intelligence, on his wrist was an unintended reference to a personal characteristic that has accompanied his story since Facebook’s early years.
And in the world of luxury watches, few ways of wearing your favorite color could be quite so extravagant.
Source and images: Luxury Launches | Instagram @de_bethune | YouTube reproduction. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.