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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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