A far cry from collection names, which generally draw their origins from the history of a watch brand, the surrounding geography or even the vocabulary of romance, Breguet’s Type XX has a kind of mystical aura, like a cryptic message, an enigmatic charisma accentuated by its dark face.

However, like all military equipment, this tool intended for pilots and aircrew bears an administrative designation imposed by the French Air Force, which, in 1953, issued a call for tenders to watch manufacturers according to very precise specifications. The instrument had to be sturdy enough to withstand the extremes of temperature, humidity, altitude and speed, measure at least 38mm in diameter, feature a dark dial with oversized luminescent Arabic numerals for instant information, even at night, and incorporate a chronograph with flyback function, easy to operate with thick gloves. The following year, in 1954, Breguet’s mastery of the flyback function led to the company being chosen by the French Air Force, the Armée de l’Air and then the Aéronautique Navale, to manufacture these watches, the Type 20 for the former and the Type XX for the latter, a spelling difference devised to differentiate the models specially developed to meet the technical needs of each military entity.

The post CODE NAME: TYPE XX appeared first on Watches News.

Paris is a cornerstone of Breguet’s rich past, since the city has witnessed a young man from Neuchâtel, Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), learned the art of watchmaking from the great masters, set up his workshop and gave life to the greatest inventions, both technical and aesthetic, in the science of time, at the end of the 18^th century. A few decades later, a young cloud-loving Louis Breguet (1880-1955), a great-great-grandson of the first, also took to the skies of the French capital to launch his airplanes, which also enabled the industry to make great strides in its infancy.

Several generations apart, but the same family name and the same city: Breguet and Paris. One on terra firma, Breguet and watchmaking, to invite men and women to find their bearings in time, the other high in the air, Breguet and aviation, to invite men and women to navigate easily between continents. Thanks to the French Air Force’s call for tenders in 1953, which was won in 1954, the two branches of the family tree came together, encapsulated in a single object: the Type XX chronograph, an indispensable flying instrument for soldiers of the skies, produced in 1,100 pieces for the Air Force between 1955 and 1959, then 500 for the Naval Aviation, and equipped with the flyback function that resets the count to zero and instantly triggers a new measurement of short times.

The post THE SKY IS A NEW PLAYGROUND appeared first on Watches News.

Between the 1950s, when Breguet designed a chronograph at the request of the French Air Force to complement the military equipment of airmen and mechanics aboard aircraft, and to enable them to wear a reliable, robust instrument on their wrists that was as easy to read as it was to handle, and today, four generations of Type XX have succeeded one another in the watch brand’s catalog.

Approved in 1954, after winning an invitation to tender by meeting a demanding set of specifications, this tried-and-tested tool became a collection in 1995, a space in which it evolved, proliferated under the guise of various variants, underwent a few transformations in line with the tastes and desires of the times, until the arrival of two new ambassadors in June 2023. Each model in this pairing has the same name, but spelled differently to respect both their origins and specificities, as well as their aesthetics, some of which have been borrowed from previous versions. The Type 20 reference 2057, formerly developed for the French Air Force, inherits the “military” moniker and a graphic design based on two counters, a small seconds hand at 9 o’clock and an oversized totalizer at 3 o’clock, and a period look with its fluted bezel and conical crown complementing the 42mm-diameter steel case, while the Type XX reference 2067, based on the design commissioned by the Aéronautique Navale in the late 1950s, adopts the “civilian” designation and stands out for its notched bezel, trio of counters and Alpha-type hands.

The post A CHRONOGRAPH THROUGH TIME appeared first on Watches News.

A little over a year after the presentation of the fourth-generation Type XX in Paris, Breguet unveils a new version of the Type XX reference 2067, still marked by a dynamic allure but whose sporty silhouette adopts the warm reflections of rose gold, a metal introduced on two watches issued in very small series in 1955, and the face is dressed in a beautiful deep blue, two hues that evoke the sky at nightfall when the sun gently gives way to the moon.

Punctuated on the right-hand side by chronograph push-pieces and a fluted crown, the case of this “civilian” variant measures 42mm in diameter and 14.1mm thick, and is topped with a notched bezel featuring a blue ceramic ring. For Breguet, the use of this material, highly appreciated for its high resistance to scratches and corrosion, as well as its lightness, is a first. What’s more, its brilliance contributes to the contrast created by the finishes on the dial, sunburst for the main disc and azure for the trio of counters (the small seconds and hour totalizers at 9 and 6 o’clock respectively, and the oversized 15-minute totalizer overhanging the date between 2 and 4 o’clock). The hands have undergone a change compared to the Type XX of 2023, as the Alpha shape gives way to a baton style with a very elongated tip. The indications delivered by this elegant model beat to the rhythm of caliber 728, an automatic manufacture movement featuring a flyback chronograph function, a vertical clutch mechanism, and a high-efficiency barrel that provides 60 hours of power reserve.

The post IN A NIGHT-BLUE SKY appeared first on Watches News.

The launch of the Type XX and Type 20 chronograph pairing, the 4^th generation of a watch developed in 1954 for the French Air Force, which took place in Paris in June 2023, was accompanied by the introduction of a powerful high-frequency (5hz, or 36,000 vibrations per hour) automatic flyback chronograph movement developed exclusively by Breguet for this collection of timepieces.

After some 4 years of development, the Type XX calibre 728 reference 2067 sets the course for a new mechanical era. Featuring a silicon balance-spring, lugs and escape-wheel assembly, this sturdy and reliable heart, assembled using 350 components, carries a vertical clutch mechanism coupled to a black-tinted column wheel and an efficient barrel that delivers a 60-hour power reserve. On the dial side, it drives the current hours and minutes, the small seconds at 9 o’clock, the date at 4:30 and, of course, the information relating to the measurement of short times, i.e. the central second hand that powers the oversized 15-minute totalizer between 2 and 4 o’clock and the hour totalizer at 6 o’clock. A variant of this new engine, the caliber 7281 fitted to the Type 20 reference 2057, the “military” version, is also equipped with a monoplane-shaped oscillating weight, giving rhythm to the ballet of hours and minutes, off-center seconds at 6 o’clock, the date, and a minute counter, this time set to 30, swept by a small leaf-style hand at 3 o’clock.

The post CALIBER 728, A POWERFUL HEART appeared first on Watches News.

With the arrival of the 4^th generation, embodied by the Type XX Chronographe 2067 and Type 20 Chronographe 2057, modern interpretations of the original models created by Breguet back in 1954 at the request of the French Air Force, the highly exclusive caliber 728 and its 7281 variant made their debut in the collection. These reliable movements benefit from contemporary mechanics, embracing all the technical advances undertaken by the watchmaking Manufacture and enabling, notably thanks to flyback function, precise and instantaneous measurement of short times.

The flyback function, an additional chronograph function invented by Longines in 1936, saves a great deal of time, a considerable advantage in the 1950s for military aviators for whom every minute or even every second could prove decisive since they sometimes had to navigate by sight, and didn’t have the modern tools of today’s pilots, since it enables them to stop a count, reset it and start a new one by pressing the piston-shaped push-button at 4 o’clock on the right-hand side of the case.

One gesture is all it takes to perform three manipulations, to measure successive intervals of time rapidly on totalizers installed on the dial, with the minutes displayed at around 3 o’clock in a counter deliberately oversized to be legible at a glance, and the hours at 6 o’clock. Equipped with a vertical clutch mechanism and a column wheel, the self-winding Calibre 728 offers formidable efficiency thanks to its high precision, notably thanks to its high frequency of 5hz (36,000 vibrations per hour).

The post FLYBACK: A NEW BEGINNING appeared first on Watches News.

This watch duo, with its delicate face and robust body, embodies the brand’s heritage, in particular its founder’s role as Horloger de la Marine (watchmaker to the French royal navy), which it reinterprets through emblematic codes.

Four decades after opening his workshop on the Quai de l’Horloge in Paris, Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) was appointed Watchmaker to the Royal Navy by Louis XVIII (1755-1824). This prestigious title, combined with unrivaled expertise, gave birth 175 years later to the Marine collection, a range of sporty-look watches recently modernized. In 2024, Breguet, the current company based in the Vallée de Joux, unveils two new versions of the Marine 9518 which, like their predecessors, reinterpret the legacy of the Neuchâtel-born grand master through emblematic codes.

Each watch in this graceful pairing features a 33.8mm-diameter steel case extended by a bracelet with links machined from the same metal. The case, fitted with a diamond-trimmed bezel, features a fluted caseband and, on its right-hand side, two wave-shaped elements framing the crown. It houses the 591A caliber, a 4hz self-winding movement with a 38-hour power reserve. Regarding the dial, available in ultramarine blue or silver-grey, the Marine 9518 displays several layers, starting from the center towards the flange: a sunray disk holding a pair of luminescent Breguet-style hands and a second hand with the silhouette of a nautical pennant as a counterweight, a ring decorated with circular brushing bearing brilliant-cut diamond hour markers and Roman numerals and opened at 6 o’clock for the date window, and, finally, a circle on which the minute track is installed.

The post MARINE 9518 appeared first on Watches News.

The color green embodies the dawn of a promise, that of the tender rebirth of beings that winter has caught, ankylosed, asleep for long frigid months, of a newfound vitality, nourished by hope, by nature awakening in the sunny mist of a new morning. A better world, a happy world, a fulfilled world: these are the profoundly human values embodied by this hue with its thousand invigorating nuances. Among them, Breguet has chosen the tenderness of turquoise intermingled with azure, the union of earth and sky, to dress the noble, slender silhouette, rounded like a heart in love, of the irresistibly feminine Reine de Naples 8918 watch.

Its oval face is adorned with immaculate mother-of-pearl like a carpet of soft snow, and at its heart, slightly offset downwards, is a disc covered with diamonds of different diameters, arranged one against the other using the snow-set technique. Encircled by a delicate black belt of stars and geometrical symbols that punctuate the minutes in segments of five and fifteen, the small blued Breguet hands with hollowed-out knobs indicate the essential time, driven by the automatic caliber 537/3, which delivers 45 hours of power reserve. Arabic numerals, printed on the iridescent surface with decals combining two different greens – one light to form the body of the character, one dark to highlight it and give it relief – follow the curvature of the dial, while the fire of a pear-cut diamond at 6 o’clock illuminates this elegant scenography. The white gold case, measuring 36.5mm long, 28.45 wide and 10.1 high, is hemmed with two ribbons of 117 gemstones running along the flange and bezel, and features a crown at 4 o’clock punctuated by a briolette. It is attached to the wrist by two strands of alligator leather matching the hour-markers, closed by a diamond-trimmed folding clasp.

The post SPRING-LIKE SOFTNESS appeared first on Watches News.

While its roots lie in the rich heritage of the company founded in 1775, which includes some of the greatest advances in modern watchmaking such as the eponymous balance-spring, the pare-chute and the tourbillon, to name but a few, the Reine de Naples is essentially based on an interpretation of the first wristwatch developed by Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) at the request of Caroline Murat née Bonaparte (1782-1839) between 1810 and 1812. Its unique oval silhouette, in a landscape populated by round models where square, rectangular or even tonneau shapes are rare, makes it an atypical, furiously feminine timepiece, but also a blank canvas on which to affix aesthetic savoir-faire, also initiated in the 18^th century by the ingenious watchmaker.

Bucking the ornamental trends of the time, which resulted in timepieces saturated with decoration, Abraham-Louis Breguet focused on the watch’s primary function: to display time clearly, freeing cases and dials from all embellishment. This philosophy of purity, this design based on the essential, is a driving force that still fuels the watchmaking brand, without however neglecting artistic craftsmanship, as evidenced by certain models in the Reine de Naples collection, and often hemmed with precious stones. Guilloché is one of Breguet’s main signatures, and the Manufacture’s craftsmen work on the dials using several motifs – Clous de Paris, colimaçon, checkerboard – to delimit the reading zones, as on the 8998 Day/Night reference, the 8968 and 8908, on a gold disc or, in the case of the 8965, in mother-of-pearl. Moreover, this natural material with its iridescent reflections is often used by Breguet in this product family, in applied surfaces to cover all or part of the watch face (8918, 8925, 8928, 8908, 8909, , 8939, 8978) or in marquetry (9807, 9808, 9818). The company also distinguished itself with cameo shell work on a spectacular piece, the Reine de Naples 8958, a few years ago.

The post A SOURCE OF CREATIVITY AND BEAUTY appeared first on Watches News.

Right from the start, when he was still learning the art of watchmaking in France, the young Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) stood out for his mechanical aptitude, precocious erudition and rare intelligence. Once established in 1775 in a workshop on the Quai de l’Horloge in Paris, Breguet’s technical inventions and aesthetic language quickly earned him a solid reputation and a prestigious clientele both inside and outside France.

Among the illustrious personalities who bought the work of Abraham-Louis Breguet, famous women were seduced by the instruments he developed: Queen Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793), wife of Louis XVI (1754-1793), Empress Joséphine (1763-1814), then her daughter Hortense (1783-1837) and her sister-in-law Caroline Murat (1782-1839), younger sister of Napoleon I (1769-1821). For the latter, and at her request, the master watchmaker invented the first wristwatch, which he delivered in 1812 and whose main features inspired the Reine de Naples collection almost two centuries later. This family of timepieces, whose personality is so powerful that each model is perfectly identifiable, not least thanks to its oval case, is not the only one to pay tribute to the strong bond between Abraham-Louis Breguet and his customers. Indeed, although the trend is to do away with categories based on gender, the eponymous brand’s offering includes certain timepieces – always mechanical, often adorned with precious stones and sometimes featuring complications – with contained dimensions clearly intended for feminine wrists. The references Classique 9085, 8068, 9087, 9067, Marine 9509, 9517, 9518, or 7035, 7038 from the Tradition family, or, more exceptionally, the extraordinary Les Volants de la Reine, L’Orangerie, among others, are proof of this attachment.

The post FEMININITY IN ALL ITS FORMS appeared first on Watches News.

Like love, the beating of an infatuated heart and the sentimental gymnastics that embrace it, alternating between the euphoria of an unforgettable memory and the deep sighs of emotional serenity, time too possesses a philosophical elasticity. Isn’t it said that time tends to speed up during joyous moments and lengthen during boredom? If sixty seconds on the dial of a watch make up a minute, sixty minutes make up an hour, time breathes in rhythm, like the organ that palpitates in our chest, and yet the experience of these durations sometimes presents a different reality. Breguet translates this purely lyrical impression with an original hand applied to its ideal timepiece for transcribing this symbol of love: the Reine de Naples.

The elegant collection, based on the creation between 1810 and 1812 of the first wristwatch born of the relationship between a young monarch, Caroline Murat (1872-1839) and the mechanical genius of her favorite watchmaker, Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), is expanded with the addition of two models that personify this temporal flexibility. One, the Reine de Naples 9835, is a limited edition of just 20 pieces, all in blue mother-of-pearl with diamonds, while the other, the Reine de Naples 9838, features an immaculate white-lacquered face hemmed with blue sapphires. Common to this duo is the egg-shaped gold case, measuring 36.5mm in length, 28.4mm in width and 11mm in thickness, and housing the 78A0 caliber. This movement, wound by a platinum oscillating weight with a 40-hour power reserve, features a heart-shaped hand under the hour aperture, composed of a pair of nickel-phosphorus alloy arms, one flexible and the other rigid. This binomial ends in an arrowhead, silver or red, to indicate the minutes, and its rhythmic stroke transforms its geometry, stretched towards 9 o’clock then fleshy from 3 o’clock onwards, mimicking the pulsations of love.

The post THE COMPLEX MECHANICS OF LOVE appeared first on Watches News.

It was in 2002 that the Reine de Naples watch made its entry into the watchmaking world, based on the main codes depicted in the books of special orders by Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) and then his son Antoine-Louis Breguet (1776-1858), carefully preserved in the museum of the current eponym company, of piece no. 2639 that the ingenious Paris-based watchmaker developed at the request of Caroline Murat (1782-1839) between 1810 and 1812. Indeed, the young sister of Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821), then sovereign consort of the Italian region, wanted to be able to read the time inscribed freely on her wrist like a piece of jewelry. The essential stylistic vocabulary of this now-defunct object can be found in the reinterpretation of what remains the first wristwatch in the history of watchmaking.

The Reine de Naples collection reinvents the time imagined by Abraham-Louis Breguet and worn by Caroline Murat, with its timepieces featuring a mechanical heart and oblong-shaped cases whose flanks are adorned with delicate fluting. At around 4 o’clock, the crown is topped with a cabochon-cut or briolette-cut gem, while at 6 o’clock, a metal sphere, sometimes lined with stones, secures the alligator leather, silky satin or braided chain bracelet. Time follows the curved lines of the dial, with its hour-markers extended between 11 and 2 o’clock, while two small Breguet-style hands indicate the hours and minutes in the center of the dial. Steel, white or pink gold, polished or diamond-coated: the precious case measures 36.5mm high by 28.45mm wide, with a thickness of 10.5mm. A smaller version (32×27), available in different versions, completes this family of watches.

The post AN UNMISTAKABLE STYLISTIC LANGUAGE appeared first on Watches News.

He, a brilliant watchmaker and undoubtedly the greatest master of scientific timekeeping, was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where his curiosity for mechanics led him to continue his training in Paris, where he practiced his craft like a sacred art in his workshop on the Quai de l’Horloge on the Île de la Cité since 1775, a place that bears witness to his many inventions, both technical and aesthetic.

She, the younger sister of the first French emperor, born in Ajaccio, Corsica, and married to a high-ranking army officer who inherited the kingdom of Naples, was his most fervent admirer, as evidenced by the 34 pieces she acquired between 1808 and 1814, the duration of her role as sovereign consort.

His name was Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), her name was Caroline Murat (1782-1839), and their relationship, between dazzlement, loyalty and deference, guided them towards a unique creation, the first wristwatch in history.

Indeed, in 1810, two years after settling in Naples, Caroline Murat commissioned Abraham-Louis Breguet to design a timepiece with a completely new main criterion: instead of nestling it in a pocket or purse, she wanted to wear it at the end of her arm, close to her hand, like a jewel that everyone could see, admire against their skin. The object was paid for in 1811 and delivered in 1812, according to the carefully preserved archives, which lost track of him in 1855. Although there are no technical drawings, the recorded description allows us to grasp its essence: a watch with a flat, elongated silhouette, equipped with a repeater and a thermometer, to be tied to the wrist with a braided link of hair and gold thread.

In 2002, the Breguet watchmaking company unveiled a contemporary interpretation, refined to the extreme, of the timepiece imagined by Abraham-Louis Breguet for Caroline Murat, a collection that pays tribute to them and conveys a unique expression of time with its oval shape, often trimmed with diamonds and always set to the rhythm of a mechanical heart: the Reine de Naples.

The post TIME AGAINST THE SKIN appeared first on Watches News.

In June 2023, lovers of military chronographs and sports watches saw their patience rewarded with the launch of the Type 20 Chronographe 2057. It was in Paris, the capital that saw Abraham-Louis Breguet found his workshop almost a century and a half ago and Louis Breguet take off his planes in the 1900s, that the watch brand chose to unveil the fourth generation of this collection. Inspired by the aesthetic vocabulary of the original watch, produced at the request of the Air Force in 1,100 examples between 1955 and 1959, this new model showcases all the contemporary expertise of the Manufacture.

The 42mm-diameter, 14.1mm-thick steel case features a knurled rotating bezel, while its right-hand side houses two piston-shaped pushers and an imposing conical crown. This sturdy case houses the 7281 caliber, a variation of the 728, a 5hz automatic chronograph movement with flight-return function specially developed for this product line. When fully wound by its blackened gold oscillating weight, which takes up the stylized silhouette of an aircraft, it provides a 60-hour power reserve.

In terms of displays, the Type 20’s black dial is curved with oversized Arabic numerals, coated in a soft green luminescent material, over which fly two white-lacquered hands for the hours and minutes, while the seconds scroll in a counter at 9 o’clock. The second hand in the center counts down the seconds in a minute totalizer at 3 o’clock, overlooking the discreet date display at 4:30.

The post A LONG-AWAITED GENERATION appeared first on Watches News.