On the 16th of September, just last year in 2016, Reuters reported scientists having unearthed what they called: one of the largest meteorites ever to have been found on earth.
Weighing in at some 30 tonnes, the massive piece of space debris had to be excavated out from the ground in an area on the border between the provinces of Chaco and Santiago del Estero in Argentina. It is now believed that the region was hit by a meteorite shower just about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, in an Holocene impact event.
Locals have long known the patch of land by its name, Campo del Cielo — or, Field of Heaven — because long ago in the times of the Spanish conquest, the natives of the locality were using the iron extracted from the meteorites in the area to create weapons.
In recent days, though, unearthed meteors have taken on a rather precious note. That is, they are sought after as would be naturally occurring gold and diamonds. So much so that early in 2015, there were four men who were arrested for having attempted to swipe more than 200 large pieces of meteorites from the Field of Heaven, which is otherwise a protected under Argentine law.
Watchmaking, too, has for some time now used thin cut discs from these celestial objects to adorn the dials of watches. Take for example the Rolex Daytona Meteorite Limited Edition, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s meteorite dialed Master Calendar or even the Rotonde de Cartier Earth Moon watch with meteorite dial. In most of these instances, watchmakers have worked to use the innate grain patterns of the meteorites to dress their dials.
But none have yet, perhaps, treated the actual meteorite slice in an attempt to amplify the beauty held within. None until De Bethune that is. Enter the DB28 Kind of Blue Tourbillon Meteorite.