Alfihar and myself took an appointment with Mr Emmanuel Breguet himself in the last days of January at the Paris Boutique, and more specifically at the Museum, to try to gather some information / confirmations on the vintage Type 20 " Aeronautique Navale ".
The main goal was to compare the informations we gathered here and there for our book with those found by Mr Emmanuel Breguet and those he had in the archives, and to see some vintage Type 20.
For the vintage Type 20, it was not our lucky day. The CEV and some Aeronautique Navale were " on tour " all around the world for different exhibitions, but I could take some live pictures of the CEV 1 some 5 years ago.
The CEV 1 and its incredible dial:
BUT Mr Emmanuel Breguet gave us the privilege to have access to the archives, so we could spend some time with the Register where the Type 20 Aeronautique Navale are " enrolled ".
Emmanuel Breguet explained us that there are two registers, the one we had under our eyes, indexing these military watches, with the mentions of the date of the order, the date of the delivery, the case and the military numbers, and some arabic and roman numbers which are related to the different services of the watch in question, which was confirmed to us by him.
The cover of the precious register, with the kind permission of the Breguet Museum ) :
For some obvious security reasons, we cannot publish the content of this book, in order to avoid counterfeit...
BUT we were allowed to take pictures of two " Aeronautique Navale " on the pages of this book. I just deleted the numbers as per these security reasons:
Quite a thrilling moment!
These arabic and roman numbers are important as they confirm that the Breguet Manufacture serviced these watches during their military life, and they were mentioned in a second register, with all the informations on what was done on these watches ( service, which is called " rhabillage ", parts replacement and so on... ) Sadly, this second register doesn't exist anymore.
We saw some other registers where these informations are reported but it was about non military watches. Fascinating.
Other than that, Mr Breguet confirmed that the military Type 20 were also serviced in other military places in France. But when the work was too complex, it had to be done by Breguet, with one rule: If the price of the repair was higher than one third of the value of the watch, the service ( and the watch ) was refused.
Another important point we discussed, the configuration of the Type 20 Aeronautique Navale ( dial, hands, crown, movement ). When Alfihar and myself worked on our booklet, we noted that there were several dials, sets of hands, crowns and so on...
We came to the conclusion, after having found 74 different " Aeronautique Navale " that they originally came with a black dial, " hooked 7 ", leaf minute / second chronograph hands, laaf small second hand, sword minute and hour hand, pear shaped crown and a smooth bezel with a triangle at 12 o clock. The military numbers should be 1 to 500, and the case numbers from 3927 to 4427, with, on the back side the mention " Breguet Marine Nationale Aeronautique Navale ".
Mr Breguet told us that out of the 500 made, a correct estimation is that only around 100 survived.
He also confirmed our conclusions, explaining that the hands, crowns and dial have been changed during the services, by the Military themselves or the Breguet Manufacture, which is totally understandable and acceptable. Hence the differences we noted. The changed parts come from Breguet, or course, and they were borrowed from the stock of civilian Type 20. Too bad, the service register is not existing anymore as we could identify each part changed!
There was a last question to ask to Mr Breguet, about the brown dial. Here we have to say that there are brown dials and brown dials. Those which turned to brown because of the patina, and those which are " born " brown, or, if you prefer, genuinely brown.
The Type 20 CEV Nr 1 shown above is a true brown dial. At the contrary, here are some dials which turned to brown because of the patina:
About the Nr 425, Mr Breguet told us that according to him, this was a genuine brown dialed one.
Aeronautique Navale Nr 425 ( Credit: Neverlatewatches ).
He told us that a few tens of brown dials were made, and that he noticed 2 or 3 of them in Type 20 Aeronautique Navale, and maybe 4 or 5 in civilian Type 20s.
So for him, there is no doubt that these brown dials, given the rarity, were put in these military Type 20s when they were serviced at the Breguet Manufacture, which was the only one to have access to these dials, during their military life, or just after.
There is still some work in progress in the knowledge about these watches, especially in the discovery of other survivors, for sure, as we are quite sure that some unknown Aeronautique Navale are buried in some collections.Hence an idea we submitted to Mr Breguet: Why wouldn't we organize an international gathering ( exhibition ) of Aeronautique Navale, Air ( FG 54 ) and CEV? The good news is that Mr Breguet accepted the principle to host such an event, at the end of this year or in early 2027, at the Paris Boutique! We'll work on that exciting project, for sure, as it may be a fabulous opportunity to see some unknown Type 20 Aeronautique Navale surfacing!
In the meantime, you can click on this link to upload for free the book we made on the Type 20 Aeronautique Navale.
As we said: Work in Progress!
Best,
Olivier and Nicolas
PS: Huge thanks to Mr Emmanuel Breguet for all the time and the informations he gave us.
