First commissioned by the French Army in 1954, the Type 20 was intended as a navigational tool and its defining feature was the flyback function, invaluable to a flight navigator. Furthermore, it had to sport at least 35 hours of power reserve, a 300-start-stop-reset-cycles reliability, and an accuracy no less than +/- 8 seconds per day. The Type 20 was commissioned to a number of companies: Airain, Auricoste, Dodane, Seliva Chronofixe, Vixa and Mathey Tissot. According to scholarship, Mathey Tissot also manufactured some of Breguet’s Type XX in the 1950s. Interestingly, Breguet is the only one of these companies to officially use the Roman Numeral style: Type XX.

While originally intended as military timepieces, a civilian version was eventually commercialized, recognizable by the absence of military markings to the back and the Breguet signature on the dial. The present watch is an extremely interesting example of a civilian Type XX. Breguet Type XXs from the 1950s and 60s come in a plethora of variations: engraved or blank bezel, different calibres (such as Valjoux 22, 222, 225, 235 720 or Lemania 1377), two or three subsidiary dials.

The present piece features one of the least commonly seen and most aesthetically striking details to ever appear on this model: a tachymeter scale. Research of the piece with the Breguet Archives discovered that the watch was sold on July 16, 1965 to M. Ducharne for 538 French Francs. Furthermore, it appears that precisely during those years (1965-1970), Breguet supplied such tachymeter dials on special request. This leads us to believe that, most probably, the present timepiece was issued after a special request of Mr. Ducharne, making it one of the most appealing and rare Type XX to be offered for sale in recent years.