Vintage Inspired Flyback Chronograph Without Compromise: Airain Type 20 Pilot Watch 

My favorite Tim-ism today as well! 🤯

Thank you!

Not necessarily the same type 20 aesthetics but you can pick up a Frederique Constant Flyback Chrono Manufacture FC-760 for about $1200 today.

I love the Avigation Big-Eye! I could own both. Plus a Sinn 103! 😊

I love the big eye too! But no fly back complication or bezel

@@johnchan9425 Yeah, the vast majority of the Type XXI's have that rotating count down bezel and they all have the fly-back function. I reckon that the new owner of the Airain marque has done a great job with this design. I hope the production process is a success. I'd rather see these brands in the hands of capable enthusiasts than see them fade into nothing. The history of these watches is absolutely fascinating. You're commenting in this thread so the following is probably nothing you don't already know, but there is this great indirect lineage from Germany's post-war Hanharts, through some rare Breguet Type XX's right into the Longines Avigation Big-Eye. The 1st Type XX specs were heavily inspired by Hanhart, so they used the twin register Valjoux 222 mov'ts and that knurled rotating bezel. Breguet made 2,000 sterile dial pieces in the 'normal' Type XX layout and a further 1,000 branded pieces with a Big-Eye register at the 3 o'clock that only measured 15mins. I'm sure that you know of these pieces, with their distinctive squat lumed leaf style chronograph hand & the lumed 3min increment Big-Eye register. 500 of those went to French Naval Aviation and 500 to the CEV, or Flight Training Centre. The most interesting and rarest are the 50 tri-register versions (using a Valjoux 225) that added a 12hr register at the 6 o'clock and the 12hr count down bezel. There's something about all that intertwined inspiration - from the Hanhart through to this Longines Avigation Big-Eye via an obscure Breguet Type XX that really excites the nerd in me.

Good point. Dodane and Auricoste, 2 of the 6 original manufacturers are still producing Type XX's (as I'm sure you know) and even though Breguet claim to be still making them (I think they call them Type 22's & Type 23's now?) they are big and shiny and ugly!, but again I'm sure you know all that. You're point about the resurrected brand is well made, however I have to say that I think they've done a stellar job! Sourcing the movement through La Joux-Perret was a nice touch as was leaving the dimensions (pretty much) alone. I'm sure that there'll be plenty of interested collectors waiting to see how the first batch turns out, I believe is sold out?, before pouncing, but I think they'll pounce. If I had the means I'd definitely be interested. One of my favourite watch designs of all time.

I've never had any success with polywatch but I have found "Autosol" applied with a wet cloth works a treat.

All good points. But . . . mountain climbing is a two-hand activity, and chronographs are two-handed watches. I can't imagine those two things would go together very well. :)

Hello, little information about the bezel. If I'm not mistaken the purpose of a 12 hour countdown is for the remaining fuel for the plane. If you take the plane at 1pm and you have 3 hours of fuel, you simply put the 3 on the plane's takeoff time. Don't take my words from granted, I could be wrong.

@@Vingt-trois1 it's as good an explanation as any.. and as u noted, there is much explanation about it. Thanks.

Actually it might be less expensive, because the price includes VAT, which you don't have to pay in many regions outside Europe.

He's GERMAN.

He learned English in-part so he could talk to YOU. (This doesn't mean he's British.)

Or is that real English gentlemen are somewhat like Tim? This Englishman who can sometimes pass as a gentleman would say Tim's more talented than most English gents.

Luke, if you had read Jays sentence correctly you would have realised that he wasn't saying that Tim was English but was imitating the mannerisms of one.

Some might say Hamburg is the most British city outside Britain 😉

Made with a french press and with fresh milk.

Black, no sugar. Started drinking it that way when I was 14 and wanted to impress the girl down the street how tough I was.

It's 2500 on the official homepage and it's 'out of stock' . Did my sentence confuse you? I edited it to be clearer.

Unfortunately it's too expensive for me!!, however I'm not sure that it's too expensive for what it is. La Joux-Perret are a pretty serious manufacturer so I reckon a fly-back chronograph mov't from them would cost an arm and a leg and given the sort of money the original Type XX's command, I reckon enthusiasts who regularly spend ~€3K on timepieces will find this very attractive. Yeah, the brands heritage is 'imagined' (for want of a better phrase) but otherwise they've done a bang up job effectively re-issueing the piece from the original specs. Hemel do a very similar piece for ~$500USD (either Seiko mecha-quartz or Seagull ST19 powered) if you are after something similar. It's a clone of the Blancpain Air Command - but also another type XX / type XXI - and 6 companies produced them for the French Air Force alone and Blancpain wasn't one of them, so theirs is effectively an homage as well... 😊

Then you haven't been looking.

There are quite a lot of options actually. You should definitely look around a bit more!

If you go vintage you can get cheaper ones...Seiko made some in the '70s and those tend to be really cheap. Their movement was also the thinnest automatic chrono for quite some time

What are your thoughts on this watch? I like the Type XX and would am considering this watch.