Homage TYPE XX

History of Type 20 Many watch collectors are familiar with the Breguet Type 20 (later it carne to be reissued as Type XX) as one of the first and most desirable pilot chronographs of post WWII period. The originai Type 20 was ordered in 1954 by the French Ministry of Defense (MOD) which gave it the "Type 20" designation: the MOD equipment code for a pilot's wristwatch. The French Ministry had a number of criteria that needed to be satisfied for a watch to be issued to pilots. For example, the watch had to have a fly back chronograph, a black and highly legible dial, must be fit to use 300 times without needing any service, accurate to within 8 seconds per day, and between 37-39mm in diameter. The Breguet Type 20 served In the French Air Force and Marine Nationale Aéronautique Navale (Aéronavale) in 1950s-1960s. Most ofthe 2,000 Type 20 military issue watches were collected and destroyed by the French MOD after they underwent their final scheduled service. What is generally not known is that all 2,000 Type 20 chronographs were sold by Breguet to the French Ministry of Defense, but not a single one of the watches was actually manufactured by Breguet. In fact it was Mathey-Tissot that assembled the 5101/54 model for Breguet. This gorgeous civilian Mathey- Tissot Type 20 which happens to rarer in numbers than the Breguet model.j_s the same timepiece: with case, dial and the Valjoux 222 movement all made by the same manufacturers to the same specs as the Breguet.