Closed | Important watches – Saturday 16 May 2015

The French Ministry of Defence wanted to provide their army pilots with reliable and precise watches after World War II. They had a list of specific qualities they looked for in the watch, it was supposed to be a chronograph with a black dial, have flyback function, accurate within eight seconds/day and with a power reserve of at least 35 hours. The name of the final watch, “Type XX” (read “Type 20”) refers to that specification.

Four different companies delivered “Type XX” chronographs to the French army. The first two were Vixa and Breguet which started delivering watches in the beginning of the 1950s and later on they were followed by J.Auricost and Dodaine. Breguet first delivered several prototypes until the final version was done in 1954, they then got a contract to produce 2000 watches. They were also asked to produce several different watches to the French navy (Aéronatique Navale). But they didn’t just make watches for the army, these watches could also be bought by civilians at their store at Place Vendôme in Paris.

The next generation of “Type XX” watches were launched in the middle of the 1970’s. But they were too expensive for the French army and except for about half a dozen documented military watches, they were sold to civilians until the 1980’s. In 1994 it came back in stock again and is today made in several various models and different materials.