Breguet Type XX The narrative resumes its journey
The watchmaking adventure and the aeronautical epic have always been close, parallel, even linked. On the wrist of pilots who have broken records, won battles, each time it was necessary robust and powerful watches, able to face all the times and allow the exploits, techniques and aesthetics. At the Pantheon of sports mechanical icons, mythical timepieces are not so numerous. Also, when one of them resumes his flight completely reinvented, his comeback must be a success. For Breguet, when it was decided to update a collection that has accompanied the history of the brand and aviation, the famous Type XX, the challenge was not to distort it while ensuring a leap into modernity. In short, to offer it, while respecting its DNA, a new breath so that the flight of 2023 propels it, at least, 70 years later. This great journey, the 2023 generation of the Type XX has been preparing it for four years. The result: a new calibre, up to date technology, two versions (one with a military look, the other inspired by civilian models), a contemporary spirit, a dynamic presence and stylish references to the past. It all began with a call for tenders launched during the 1950s by the French air forces who wish to equip their squadrons with a robust and powerful wrist chronograph with black dial with numbers, luminescent hands and movement resistant to pressure changes and accelerations, with rotating bezel and return-in-flight function. Breguet responds to this request of a model baptized XX by the army with that which bears the same name. As other clock and watch makers are on the ranks, the aviation selects various prototypes, which can be simultaneously sold to the civilians. The house that had previously been chosen by the pioneers Santos Dumont or the soldiers stationed in France after 1918, whose precision watch instruments already equip the dashboard of aircraft, can only be inspired.
Its Type XX appears, soon declined for the National Navy, also ordered by the civil aviation. 1971, second generation with enlarged case in polished steel, thick horns and new success with the French and foreign official bodies (the Royal Forces of Morocco for example) as civilians. In 1995, after ten years of absence, appears the third generation, called 3800 Naval Air Force (without date) then 3820 Transatlantic (with date) with details revised like the fluted case. Today’s two Type XX versions feature two new calibres, the self-winding 728 and the military 7281. Each has its own specificities. The Type XX Chronograph 2057 draws its inspiration from the military heritage of the model, namely the 110 specimens delivered to the French Air Force in 1955 and 1959, whose name was written in Arabic numerals. Modernized black dial, Arabic numerals therefore, bezel and luminescent hands mint green, 30-minute counter located at 3 o’clock, more imposing than the current seconds displayed at 9 o’clock, date window at 4:30, 42 mm steel box with non-digradated bezel bidirectional fluted, original pear-shaped crown with three adjustment positions including return in flight… everything is there! And very beautifully. The Type XX Chronograph 2067, in line with the civilian versions of yesteryear, evokes a model manufactured in 1957, but with a display at 3 o’clock, the 12 o’clock one being moved to 6 o’clock and the current seconds posed at 9 o’clock. The counters are different from those of its “military” sister. for more dynamism and readability. There is an ivory luminescent treatment, a case size with fluted bidirectional graduated bezel, a classic crown of straight shape with three positions, a pusher positioned at 2 h which starts and stops the functions chrono, reset and immediate start. As for the bracelets, in calfskin leather or black Nato, they are easily interchangeable. Yesterday but especially today, on the Type XX of Breguet, time does not do its work since it never stops…
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