In the latest auction held by Philips in New York (WINNING ICONS – LEGENDARY WATCHES OF THE 20TH CENTURY) Breguet has acquired a copy of theBreguet Type XX from 1967for the handsome sum of 60,000 US dollars, when its estimate by the auction house itself was between 12 and 24,000. Quite a record at a time when these last very very little.
In addition to having invented the tourbillon or having built the most complicated watch in the world (Marie Antoinette, 1827), the Breguet surname has been linked to aviation in its own right: in 1907, Louis-Charles Breguet, great-great-grandson of the genius watchmaker, developed a flying device, the vertical climb gyroplane and ancestor of the helicopter, and designed and built several airplane models, some of which ended up serving in the First World War.
Parallel to the aeronautical activity of the Société Anonyme des Ateliers d’Aviation Louis Breguet, the watchmaking house Breguet (no longer in the hands of the heirs of the same surname) designed chronograph mechanisms for cockpit instrument panels and began manufacturing watches for aviators. This is how, in 1935, it developed its first wrist chronographs. A little more than twenty years later, Breguet produced the Type XX according to the specifications of the French air force, which would equip the French air and aeronautical forces until the early 1980s. The interest in these models was such that the house ended up manufacturing a version for civilians. These models, which may or may not be equipped with an hours totalizer, always included the flyback function.
The Breguet Type XX chronograph from 1967 that the Breguet house has just acquired belongs to the first generation of these watches. It is characterized by its brushed steel case and slightly curved lugs. The 38.5 mm case houses a dark brown dial on which luminescent hands and Arabic numerals are located. This piece, produced in 1967, was initially sold on January 26, 1968 and will now be exhibited in one of the brand's museums in Paris, Zurich or Shanghai.
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