The Breguet family’s deep and significant historical roots within the watch industry are well known, but a subsequent branch of the French lineage pioneered a different field.
A century ago, Louis Breguet was the leading figure in French aviation. He founded an aeronautical design company that built the plane for the first Paris-to-New York transatlantic flight in 1930.
As part of its ongoing 250th anniversary celebration, Breguet is reviving the Type XX pilot’s chronograph and honoring that historic flight in a Breguet aircraft with a hand-engraved bridge on the manual movement.
But the historical appeal of this watch doesn’t stop there, as it intertwines a significant chapter in the watchmaker’s history supplying watches for the French Air Force.
In 1952, Breguet submitted a prototype that met the French Air Force’s specifications for a new pilot’s watch. France’s oldest watchmaker won the contract, along with several other companies, and two versions were created: the Type 20 for military use and Type XX for civilian sale.
Breguet has reproduced variations of the Type XX over the years, most recently in 2024, but this anniversary Type XX 2075BH comes closest to the original solid gold prototype submitted in 1952.
