Breguet

markkeenan
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The modern version - There is one thing I do not understand ....

I bought a Breguet Type XX recently and find it to be IMHO the most elegant looking chronograph watch on the market. The only "fault" I can find on it is in the layout of the minute register at the 3 o'clock position. Why does each baton represent a 2min period which makes it very difficult to read at a glance. I had thought originally that it was for historical reasons where the models from the 50's and 60's had a similar layout and it was important for pilots to be able to read time as a percentage of an hour - (such that each of the large batons (5 in total) represented 10% of an hour) but it seems that this is not really the case and was some marketing spin.

Most owners of these histroical pieces say however that vintage models did have 15 min totailsers and 15 batons - this begs the question;  is the new version only a 30 min totailser because the lemania 1352 movement has a 30 min wheel and it is only the dial with the 15 batons that is been kept for historical reasons - not good.

In defence of the historical argument and the 10% of an hour thing, I did read a review on the net www.finertimes.com  that said that a few watches were made with 15 registers (CEV editions) which i think is probably partly correct because if you look at the  picture of the watch in Gordon Bethune's collection that has the chronograph activated - it can be seen that the second hand is almost at the 12 position (i.e one minute has almost elapsed) and the minute hand in almost between two batons -  that this must be a 30 min register with 15 batons. It says that this is a CEV edition in his collection so why does the article say the CEV watches have 15 min totailsers when this one clearly has  a 30 min totaliser?

What i suspect is that only a very few were made with 15 min totalisers and 15 batons but the bulk did in fact have 30 min registers with 15 batons.

I would just like to understand whether the use of a 30 min register with batons at 2min on the new version has been kept for historical reasons - which i actually think is quite charming, or whether the new versions have just decided to copy the old dial (that was a true 15 min register) but did not change the movement to be a 15 min wheel and make it 100% "true" to the originals.

Anyway a great watch non the less

Mark