Breguet Type XXI Ref. 3817 & The link to aviation
We generally think of Breguet watches referring more to some kind of traditional watch design with their signature guilloche dials for instance, but this sportier collection is also part of the brand’s history since the 1950’s. But even more importantly, Breguet has a huge legitimacy in doing so, as one of the great great grandson of Abraham-Louis Breguet played an important role in those pioneering days of aviation.
In the pilot collection, all the watches are flyback chronographs and Breguet proposes 3 variants; the Type XX, the original denomination of their pilot watch, which comes in a smaller 39mm diameter case, the Type XXI, in a 42mm case and the Type XXII, which houses high frequency escapements beating at 10Hz and comes in a 44mm case.
The Reference 3817 is the first which introduces a sapphire case back and comes in a steel case, with a grey-slate dial and since you can see the movement, they placed a solid gold rotor.
This video was shot both in Paris and in L'Orient in the Vallée de Joux: