De Bethune; Founder + Master Watchmaker

Denis Flageollet is one of the founders of independent watch company De Bethune, and a fourth-generation watchmaker, driven to conserve and protect traditional watchmaking crafts and values, but also to innovate and explore. Equally an artisan, historian, and expert micromechanical engineer, he has devoted his life to creating watches that strive for chronometric excellence, and impeccable aesthetics.

De Bethune; CEO

If Denis Flageollet is the man responsible for inventing De Bethune’s watches, Pierre Jacques is the man who helps get them on the wrists of the globe’s most important collectors. In his second run as CEO of De Bethune, Jacques—who was born in Brussels in 1967—led the company between 2011 and 2015 before returning in 2017. Like Flageollet, Jacques developed a passion for craftsmanship during childhood, but soon found that he was much better at building businesses than objects.

Soon after moving to Geneva in 1987 to pursue his university studies in international relations, Jacques created his first company, selling school agendas to classmates. A second business followed, then a third, and before he had time to realize it, Jacques had made Geneva his home. In 2000, he focused all his energy into a new passion project and founded GMT Magazine, a quarterly focusing on watchmaking that quickly became an industry must-read. After selling the magazine in 2007, Jacques was invited to serve as director of the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). In that role, he developed a close personal relationship with Denis Flageollet, who, convinced of Jacques’s deep understanding of the luxury industry, later invited him to join the De Bethune family as CEO despite his lack of experience managing a watch manufacture. After a brief hiatus from De Bethune between 2015 and 2017, Jacques, leading a consortium of private-equity investors, returned as a majority shareholder of the company and immediately set his sights on streamlining De Bethune’s collection without placing undue influence on Flageollet’s work.

De Bethune; Jeweler specializing in movement decoration

A watchmaker’s daughter, Victoire has spent time in workshops since her childhood. Tools and materials are an integral part of her world. Having developed a passion for gems, she studied jewellery-making at a school in Paris and then trained in traditional techniques by working in a subcontracting workshop for various Maisons on the city’s famous Place Vendôme.

She subsequently returned to her hometown of Sainte-Croix to devote her skills to art mechanics. Working with master-watchmakers enables her to explore and acquire the ancestral and modern techniques specific to the decoration of components for fine watchmaking. She shapes and embellishes material, a craft that endows each piece with its unique character. In addition to the quest for aesthetic harmony, these finishes also contribute to mechanical performance, as art mechanics has always demanded aesthetic precision to ensure its constructions both run smoothly and are appropriately showcased.