BOLD TYPE

Breguet celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Type XX flyback chronograph with two new models, and ushers in a new era for this iconic timepiece

- ASHOK SOMAN, RUCKDEE CHOTJINDA

The phrase time flies has something to do with the speed with which time passes. Typically, this is only used when discussing how quickly time seems to pass when we are engaged in something fun. It is, to use the most relevant example, what magazine editors hope happens as you traipse across our pages. Happily, it is also relevant to the opening salvo of this potentially rambling missive. Ambling about in the Petit Palais in Paris, wine glass in hand while waiting for dinner to begin, I cannot help but consider how fast everything seems to be drawing to a close. Breguet has brought us all (that includes my copilot for this story, Ruckdee Chotjinda) to Paris for its first proper international launch in years, and certainly the first in the after-times. It has been a pastis-fuelled affair that has taken us across the city and its aerospace museum – for once, the museum visit here is not incidental but an integral part of the celebration…

We will come back to that museum, the Musée de l’air et de l’espace, briefly, but first I must return us to our narrative. We are assembled at the Petit Palais (the Grand Palais was under renovation during the launch in June and will be till next year) for the official launch of the Breguet Type 20 and Type XX, more specifically references 2057 and 2067, which happens to be one of the most significant chronograph-specific launches this year. As we mentioned in our Autumn issue, the watchmaking world is deep in the throes of a passionate love affair with the chronograph, and Breguet is hardly missing in action.