Breguet
Type XX Chronographe Aéronavale - Limited Edition

Vintage collector’s watch: Breguet Type 20 Aéronavale chronograph with three sub-dials, from the year 2000. This automatic collector’s chronograph features a flyback mechanism and is a modern reissue of the 1954 French Air Force military issue model. It is powered by a mechanical self-winding movement—Breguet caliber 582Q with twenty-four jewels. Developed on the Lemania 1350 base, Breguet enhanced the movement with a column wheel and a flyback function. The watch includes a small seconds complication, a 48-hour power reserve, and operates at 28,800 vibrations per hour. The 39 mm steel case is finely guilloché on the sides, in line with Breguet's traditional finishing techniques.

This refined and luxurious model draws inspiration from the military Type 20 watches, much like the Auricoste, Dodane or Vixa chronographs issued to the French Air Force in the 1950s. Despite its military roots, Breguet has crafted here a dress watch exuding the elegance characteristic of its line of complication timepieces.

A bi-directional rotating bezel, notched and graduated over 60 minutes, is marked with a triangle at the zero point. The white syringe-style hour and minute hands are enhanced with tritium, as are the numerals and indices on the circular railway minute track. Over time, these elements develop a warm tropical patina known as “gilt.” The central seconds hand, lollipop-style, and the oversized 15-minute counter at 3 o’clock—used for marking navigation intervals every 3 minutes—are faithful to the original design of the French Navy’s Breguet Type 20 issue model from the 1950s, featuring a sage-leaf-shaped hand.

The screwed case back is engraved with “Breguet Type XX Aéronavale,” along with the model and serial numbers, and indicates water resistance up to 100 meters. The crown is also screw-down. Though its DNA remains military, this elegant and luxuriously styled collector's model is more suited to refined environments than to rough use on a flight deck… though nothing in its construction or features would prevent it. One might simply conclude that the exceptional quality and care Breguet devoted to its making gives it a higher purpose.