In the mix: Breguet's new Type XX

Since Abraham-Louis Breguet first opened his business on the Île de la Cité in Paris in 1775, Breguet has been one of the most respected and storied watch brands in the world. Indeed, the list of its achievements is remarkable – the first self-winding watch; the gong spring that made the minute repeater possible; the tourbillon; and the world's first wristwatch. Many of its early patents are still used in watchmaking today.

Early in his career, Breguet was introduced to the royal court at Versailles, where he met Queen Marie-Antoinette, who was fascinated by his unique self-winding watch and persuaded her husband, Louis XIV, to buy several of the timepieces. In 1783, one of the Queen's Guards commissioned Breguet to create a timepiece that contained every known complication, as a present for Marie-Antoinette.

Known as the Marie- Antoinette pocket watch, it is considered to be Breguet's masterpiece. Sadly, it was only ready in 1827, 34 years after the queen went to the guillotine and four years after the death of Breguet himself, so was completed by his son.

Today, the brand is part of the giant Swatch Group and is respected as much as ever. Alongside its high complications, Breguet has produced pilot watches from the earliest days of aviation – American pilots stationed in France in 1918 were amongst their original fans.

The brand's latest launch is inspired by another famous Breguet, this time the Type XX. The term actually refers to the Type 20 specifications issued by the French Naval Air Force – though these are now lost. The difference between the use of Arabic and Roman numerals is deliberate. The former describes military timepieces, the latter civilian. Several companies actually produced timepieces to these specifications, but today Breguet is the most famous.

Since those early days, the watch has undergone several changes and was relaunched in the 1990s, though production ceased in 2018. Last year, drawing on the brand's vast archive for inspiration, the iconic pilot's chronograph got another update in both a Type XX version and a Type 20 model, each with a different in-house manufacture calibre and a 60-hour power reserve.

Now, Breguet has launched the latest member and the fourth generation of this distinguished family – a new 42mm-diameter civilian version in rose gold and blue ceramic, the first time it has used the latter. It is undoubtedly a successful balance between respecting the watch's forefathers whilst appearing contemporary. This is the sort of timepiece you could easily lose your head over – if that isn’t too disrespectful to Breguet's original enthusiast.

Breguet Type XX Chronographe 2067, £35,500, breguet.com

Good to know

Notable Breguet fans have included Rachmaninov, Rossini, Napoleon, Churchill and Tolstoy. The poet Alexander Pushkin even penned in his verse novel Eugene Onegin: "A dandy on the boulevards… strolling at leisure until his Breguet, ever vigilant, reminds him it is midday."