In June 2023, lovers of military chronographs and sports watches saw their patience rewarded with the launch of the Type 20 Chronographe 2057. It was in Paris, the capital that saw Abraham-Louis Breguet found his workshop almost a century and a half ago and Louis Breguet take off his planes in the 1900s, that the watch brand chose to unveil the fourth generation of this collection. Inspired by the aesthetic vocabulary of the original watch, produced at the request of the Air Force in 1,100 examples between 1955 and 1959, this new model showcases all the contemporary expertise of the Manufacture.
The 42mm-diameter, 14.1mm-thick steel case features a knurled rotating bezel, while its right-hand side houses two piston-shaped pushers and an imposing conical crown. This sturdy case houses the 7281 caliber, a variation of the 728, a 5hz automatic chronograph movement with flight-return function specially developed for this product line. When fully wound by its blackened gold oscillating weight, which takes up the stylized silhouette of an aircraft, it provides a 60-hour power reserve.
In terms of displays, the Type 20’s black dial is curved with oversized Arabic numerals, coated in a soft green luminescent material, over which fly two white-lacquered hands for the hours and minutes, while the seconds scroll in a counter at 9 o’clock. The second hand in the center counts down the seconds in a minute totalizer at 3 o’clock, overlooking the discreet date display at 4:30.
