Weekly Watch Photo – Breguet Type 20

There are watches of significance, watches of history, and then there are watches of legend. That’s how Max started his article about the legendary Type 20 and Type 21 Flyback chronographs made for the French military. Today we show you some great photos of an older Breguet Type 20. 

Produced from the 1950’s until the 1970’s and in 1985 production was started again until this day. The difference between the two production periods is that watches from the 1950’s to the first half of the 1970’s were produced for the French military. In 1985 Breguet started to produce them for the consumer market.

Today we show you some photos from member of the French watch forum Passion Horlogère and this first photo immediately struck me as a magnificent photo. I must also confess that the dark brown alligator strap with white stitching suits the old Breguet so incredibly good, that I’ve started to search on Chrono24 for a nice example.

And guess what, it also looks great on a NATO strap.

When looking for a used Type 20 watch you can search either on Chrono24 (where you can find many examples from Trusted Sellers) or Ebay (fingers crossed) or the different watch forums with their sales corners, where you can buy from the forum’s members.

The Breguet Type 20 shown in these photos is an older model, made for the French military. When Breguet started manufacturing these watches for consumers, they got the name Type XX and had a brushed or polished steel bezel. Here’s a list of different models/references:

• 3800 Aéronavale without date – polished bezel, multi-layered matt black dial, polished bracelet
• 3820 Transatlantique with date at 6 o’clock – circular brushed bezel, glossy black dial, brushed/polished bracelet
• 3807 Aéronavale without date – Special Issue, exhibition caseback, polished bezel, glossy dark Cobalt blue dial, polished bracelet, made in 1998–1999 (approximately 1,500 pieces)
• 3860 Réveil with alarm, date at 6 o’clock – circular brushed bezel, glossy black dial and brushed/polished bracelet
• 3803 Aéronavale Special Issue in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of French naval aviation – black lacquered bezel and matt black dial, made in 2010 (1,000 pieces)

One of these 3803 Aéronavale Special Issue for the French Navy, in my opinion the most beautiful version, is for sale at Chronopassion in Paris (click here).

These newer models all had a diameter of 39 mm. Later, in 2004, Breguet added the larger model reference 3810, measuring 42 mm in diameter. This one also goes by the name of Breguet Type XXI.

For now let us have one more close look 😉 at the Breguet Type 20 and I’d like to thank Passion Horlogère for letting me use their photos.

This article is written by Frank Geelen, executive editor for Monochrome Watches.