Founded in 2002 by Denis Flageollet and David Zanetta, De Bethune set out to reinvent watchmaking for the 21st century, combining centuries-old horological craftsmanship with modern techniques and materials to renew a discipline long bound by tradition. The name is a tribute to the Chevalier de Bethune (1666–1744), a Royal Navy captain, French nobleman and curious, free-spirited thinker who was one of the leading figures in precision horology during the early Enlightenment. His work on the precision factor essential to navigation, and the eponymous escapement he developed — later taken up by master watchmakers such as Antoine Thiout and Julien Le Roy — testify to a man for whom innovation was a mindset; an active and influential member of the Société des Arts, he founded a manufactory dedicated to converting iron into steel and annealing molten iron based on Réaumur's principles, which would later become the Manufacture Royale d'Orléans.

The manufacture sits at an altitude of 1,120 metres on the rugged Jura plateau in L'Auberson, near Sainte-Croix in the canton of Vaud, set amid forests and fields and drawing on craftsmanship that reaches back to metal mining around 1450 and, from the mid-18th century, developed through the art mechanics of music boxes, automata and gramophones. Names such as Hermes typewriters, Thorens phonographs and Bolex cameras testify to a local ecosystem where innovation, creativity and the skill of craftsmen continue to thrive. The house draws on an exceptional watchmaking culture spanning several centuries while exploiting today's technical and scientific advances to explore new avenues in fields as varied as chronometry, materials and decoration. As founder and master watchmaker Denis Flageollet puts it: 'The watchmaking tradition is innovation. Imagine what the great masters of the Enlightenment would do with today's scientific and technical resources.'