As cult connoisseur watches go, it’s hard to beat Breguet’s Type XX/20. Available since its launch in 1953 in two versions – the Type XX for civilians, the Type 20 for the military – for many it is the ultimate pilot’s watch. And now, after five years, it’s back with a brand-new movement and a somewhat controversial date window.

‘We drew inspiration from the past 70 years, applying all our new technologies while respecting the typology of the Type XX/20,’ explains CEO Lionel a Marca when asked why this new generation of the Type XX/20 was four years in the making. ‘The movement is bigger this time, but that is more in line with current trends. This launch is very timely because of the attraction that a large part of our clientele has to vintage watches.’

That’s not the only thing that has changed. The new calibres – the 728 for the Type XX and the 7281 for the 20, largely identical except for the difference in counters – have a flyback function – where the chronograph hand doesn’t stop at 12 when reset but hits the 12 and then continues clockwise in a fluid motion for improved accuracy. Also, to please purists, a column-wheel chronograph; a feature of the original that is back after having been absent for the past few generations. ‘It was very important for the Type XX/20 to have a column wheel,’ says a Marca. ‘The first chronographs used it for precision, so it was important for this new generation.’ Returning the column wheel – a chronograph module that resembles a small castle turret that rotates one increment when the pusher is used to start the seconds hand – is a sign that Breguet is considering the changed tastes of the present watch collector while embracing the Type XX/20’s past. Because the history of the Type XX/20 is not just the story of a watch, it is also entwined with another industry for which the name Breguet is famous – aviation.

When the French Aéronavale announced its military specs for a new pilot’s watch in 1953, the name Breguet was already a formidable one in aviation circles. In 1911, Louis Charles Breguet had founded the Société des Ateliers d’Aviation, which supplied 55,000 aircraft and 110,000 engines to the military during WWI. By 1953, it had paired with Air France to offer short-haul civilian flights on its Br763 Deux-Ponts (or Double Decker) travelling from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, Nice, and occasionally London. The watch side of the business also contributed to the aviation arm, providing watchmaking instruments for aircraft panels and even supplying the Centre d’Essais en Vol (Flight Test Centre), a subdivision of the French Air Ministry, with small-series batches of timepieces.

Despite this already-established relationship, Breguet was not the only watch brand to receive the French Aéronavale’s specifications, which included instantaneous flyback, variations of no more than eight seconds over 24 hours, reliable stop/start function for at least 300 operations, and a 35-hour power reserve. Indeed, it wasn’t the only brand to make Type XX/20s. Airain, Auricoste, Dodane, Mathey-Tissot, Seliva, Chronofixe and Vixa all made them, but Breguet is the name most associated with this moniker. Over three generations, it has experimented and refined the Type XX/20 and now is the beginning of its fourth generation.

The more refined dial is the military Type 20, thanks to having only two sub dials, but its other characteristics are syringe hands, green lume, and onion crown and fluted bezel. The civilian XX has an extra sub dial, creamy lume, numerals on the bezel, spear-like hands and an oversized, but not onion, crown. A balance spring, escape wheel, and pallet lever horns all in silicon is the biggest technological advancement. And then there’s the date at 4.30, which wasn’t on either original. ‘It’s difficult to please everyone,’ says a Marca when asked about this decision. ‘Type XX’s purists don’t want a date as military watches don’t have a date. But a date is part of the necessary information that an actual chronograph/tool watch needs, in my opinion.’

Date-window divisions aside, these two watches are a collector’s cat-nip start to the new Type XX/20 era. ‘These two pieces we have now will not change,’ says a Marca, ‘but we are already thinking about new Type XX/20s, including different materials and sizes.’ Could this mean an even more purist-pleasing 38.3mm case in the future? Keep watching the skies.

£16,400; breguet.com