In 1954 the French Ministry of Defence issued technical specification "Type 20" - a performance standard for a pilot's wristwatch required to serve on the wrists of Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) and Aéronavale (Naval Aviation) aircrew. The spec demanded a chronograph with a rotating 12-hour bezel, black dial with luminous indices, robust case with crown guards, minimum 35-hour power reserve, resistance to magnetic disturbance, and - most distinctively - a flyback (retour en vol) function allowing a pilot to instantly reset and restart the chronograph with a single pusher press without first stopping it. This was essential for mid-air navigation: pilots timing multiple legs of a flight path needed a fresh start without losing a second.
Several manufacturers competed for the contract: Breguet, Dodane, Auricoste, Vixa, Airain, and a handful of others. Breguet's Type 20 was approved in 1955 and entered active service with the French Air Force shortly after. The military-designated pieces carried the engraving "Type 20" and were issued to pilots; the civilian version Breguet sold to the public carried the Roman-numeral designation "Type XX". Approximately 2,500 military Breguets were delivered across the 1950s, 60s, and into the 70s - modest numbers that made the original Type 20 immediately collectible when vintage markets matured in the 1990s.
The original historical pieces used modified Valjoux calibres - the Valjoux 22, 222, 225 - supplying the flyback complication. A three-register layout with running seconds, 15-minute totaliser, and central chronograph seconds became the template, and Lemania-based movements powered later 20th-century re-editions. When Nicolas G. Hayek's Swatch Group acquired Breguet in 1999, the modern Type XX was relaunched with the reference 3800 series, followed by the fast-beat Type XXII 3880 with its 1/10-second central chronograph hand - polarising among purists but technically impressive.
In 2023, at Watches and Wonders, Breguet completely redesigned the collection for the first time in a quarter-century. Two new references - the civilian Type XX 2067 and the military-homage Type 20 2057 - launched with an entirely new in-house automatic flyback movement, the Cal. 728. The new watches returned to the historical 42mm case size, restored the two-register bi-compax layout of the mid-century military pieces, and introduced a 60-hour power reserve. Retail is approximately $19,500-24,000 - positioning the Type XX as one of the most authentic and mechanically serious military-chronograph re-editions ever produced by a major luxury house.
