Breguet’s New Pilot Watches Are Cleared for Takeoff

This week in Paris, Breguet unveiled the latest evolution of its iconic pilot's watch range with a pair of chronographs: the Type 20 Chronograph 2057 and the Type XX Chronograph 2067. Both are powered by a new flyback chronograph movement, the Calibre 728.

The models trace their lineage back to the early 1950s, when the French Air Force laid out specifications for a "Type XX" chronograph wristwatch to outfit its pilots. Requirements included a black dial with luminous elements and hands, high-precision timekeeping, robust resistance to shocks and vibrations, a bidirectional rotating bezel and a flyback function, which allowed pilots to start a new timing sequence with a single push as opposed to three pushes to stop, reset, and restart timing.

Breguet's Type 20 prototype was approved in 1953. The following year, the French Air Force placed an order for 1,100 of the models, which were delivered between 1955 and 1959 as flight gear that remained the property of the French state. The brand followed up by producing a civilian model designated by Roman numerals, the Type XX, for private pilots and aviation enthusiasts.

Paying direct homage to the first series of Type 20s, the 42mm stainless-steel Type 20 Chronograph 2057 (US$18,000) is fitted with a retro, fluted bidirectional bezel and black dial with easy-to-read Arabic numerals and a pear-shaped crown. The numbers, syringe-style hands, and the triangle on the bezel are treated with mint-green lume for legibility in low-light conditions. The 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock is slightly larger than the 60-second counter at 9 o’clock, and a date window is somewhat awkwardly wedged in between 4 and 5 o’clock. The pusher at 2 o’clock activates the chronograph timer, while the pusher at 4 o’clock resets the chronograph timer and the minute totalizer.

Its civilian counterpart, the Type XX Chronograph 2067 (US$18,000) takes its cues from a Type XX model originally produced in 1957. The 42mm case is fitted with a fluted bidirectional graduated bezel and a classic straight crown. The dial differs from the military version with an oversized 15-minute counter at 3 o’clock, a 12-hour totalizer at 6 o’clock and running seconds at 9 o’clock. For this version, the luminescent treatment on the dial, alpha-style hands and bezel glows in an ivory hue.

Four years of research and development went into the engine that powers these models, the new self-winding Calibre 728 for the civilian version and Calibre 7281 for the military version. Protected by several patents, the movements are built for robustness and high-precision timekeeping. For example, the balance-spring, escape-wheel, and pallet-lever horns are made of silicon, which not only resists corrosion and wear, but damaging magnetic fields as well. A column-wheel and vertical clutch system ensures crisp chronograph action that feels even and balanced when activating and restarting the timing mechanism, while the chronograph hand starts instantaneously without any initial jerking motion. A cross-through bridge secures the balance in the case of a sudden impact. The large barrel—the energy source—is equipped with a spring in a high-density material that helps to deliver an impressive 60-hour power reserve.

Both models come with an alternate black NATO fabric strap, which can easily be switched back and forth with the primary brown calfskin strap.

The name Breguet is not only famous in the watch realm. Louis Charles Breguet, the great-great grandson of the famed watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, made a name for himself as an aviation pioneer, founding Breguet Aviation in Paris in 1911. His early work included building gyroplanes (forerunners of the helicopter), and his firm also produced numerous military planes during World War I. Even though the Breguet watchmaking firm had passed out of the family by that time, Breguet Aviation equipped its planes and pilots with Breguet timing instruments and watches.