FLYING ACES

Two of the most stylish and iconic chronographs of the jet age return.

- PARTH CHARAN

BREGUET LOOKS simple even when it's not simple," says Emanuel Breguet, the vice president and head of patrimony at Breguet and a card-carrying member of the Breguet family. We're seated at Paris's Aero Club, under gold-coloured chandeliers with lacquered, wooden rotors decorating the walls. It would be a bit on the nose were it not for the fact that the Breguet name's tryst with aviation dates back to the turn of the 20th century. Louis Breguet, a descendant of Abraham-Louis Breguet himself, supplied the French Air Force with the bulk of its war planes during the First World War.

The conversation with Breguet and the brand's CEO Lionel a Marca occurs shortly after the brand reintroduced a new fourth-generation line-up of its iconic military chronograph, the Type 20, and its civilian counterpart, the Type XX. In typical Breguet fashion, there was no dearth of pageantry. The launch took place under the frescoed ceilings of Paris's iconic Petit Palais art museum in Paris-a Beaux Arts architectural marvel that's home to some of the rarest collections of 19th-century European paintings and sculptures. We're talking Monets, Rembrandts, Rubenses-the lot. Violinists ushered the crowd in while alternating hues of blue were projected onto the museum's walls and the iconic central archway that served as a portal of sorts to this surreal journey through time. Breguet pulled out all the stops in an unparalleled display of showmanship.