Just pointing out this re-edition military chronograph originally made for L'Armée de L'Air ...the French Air Force Versions were made by Bréguet, Auricoste, Dodane, Airain,... See: https://www.airain.com/ Whay do You think... all I can add, these chronographs have been used during training by French spationautes in 1980s .
It's cool, but even among watch nerds Airain doesn't have as much name recognition so it's hard to see this being super successful at its price point. The specs sound nice for the price - 39.5mm manual-wind flyback chronograph for $3k - but $3k is a lot for an unknown name. We'll see, though, and it's nice to see a couple more Type XX entrants.
While I would love the original, I think $3K for a flyback is a good value. The recent Hanhart Cal 41 re-edition is more, without the flyback.
Set 0 on the bezel to the hour hand and start the chrono. It functions as the hour counter. it can also be used for a 2nd time zone.
Makes sense and if forced to guess... ... ok now you’re just fucking with me could you hand-hold me through that (as you have probably picked up by now, we share a thing for time zones)
a 12 hour bezel can be rotated as a 2nd time zone. Just like the Spectre 300mc. if your time zone is 4 or 16 hours ahead you line up the 4 on the bezel with 12 on the dial.
This is a countdown 12h though, so wouldn't be useful for a 2nd timezone... think a countdown-hours bezel would maybe be useful for aircraft fuel reserve but can't think of much more
now we’re talking each other’s language same, too, for the proposed chrono hour function in that one would need to do subtractions to use it as a chrono hours totalizer; possible of course but awkward so I’m still left wondering about a 12hr countdown bezel
If you have 4 hours of fuel when you take off. Set the 4 marker on the current hour hand. When the hour hand reaches zero you are out of fuel.
I've found the owner of brand (Mr Wijlick) to be very open & transparent in his communication, when I'd previous inquired about the watch and the brand. I see that the U.S. company that had been previously been selling quartz Type XX interpretations under the Airain brand name, has now ceased their website operations. That other company's remaining quartz inventory has migrated onto www.airain.com. So good progress on that front, toward unifying the brand name under Compagnie des Montres Lebois & Cie, in time for the product launch of the manual-wind Airain Type XX this summer. Regarding the watch itself: I'd be very interested in purchasing one, if a dial option is offered sans vintage-colored patina in the hour markers. My preference is for white hour markers, over the beige shown on the renders. Can't wait to see the actual prototype in pictures and videos though. We saw with the Omega's new 'Cernan 321b' ', that the initial renders can make the hour markers look more yellow than they actually will be in real-life lighting conditions. I'd come very close to purchasing a Breguet Type XX a couple years ago. But while trying it on in-person, I noticed how loud the rotor-spin is on both the Aeronavale, and the Transatlantique, which was unfortunately a deal-breaker for me : ( No such concerns with Airain's new Type XX, because it has a manual-wind movement. A few other pros in my eyes, compared to the Breguet: 1) Plexiglass crystal on the Airain 2) Smaller bezel width 3) Brushed bezel (Breguet discontinued the Transatlantique a year or so ago, so only the high-polish Aeronavale is available new) 4) Minute hand chronograph counter with markers that actually match the minutes. (Breguet's minute markers are painted at 2-minute intervals, so its Big Eye design layout is out of synch with the operation of its modern movement) 5) Column wheel I would prefer a different OEM strap option, than the suede shown in renderings. If a non-fauxtina lume dial variant becomes available later, the first thing I'll do after purchasing the watch is to replace that suede strap with an alligator one.
not much discussion and disclosure on the movement which any interested buyer should be able to appreciate, considering that being a boutique brand the name is not that well known. in the 50's, typexx commonly carries with it a val22/23 and other modified and upgraded typexx movement. the flyback mechanism is a plus, but the demo dint show how it reset back with another (3rd) pusher. it seems a stop and recoil back mechanism. the breguet typexx flyback costs 10x more than this. if this airain flyback carries a borrowed movement as that of breguet, then this is a real steal.
I'll definitely look into this. I used to own a vintage example and really liked it. Priced smartly for an Swiss, in house, column wheel flyback classic military style chronograph!
I know it wouldn’t be true to the original, but I would prefer a standard 12 hour bezel. Much more practical with 2nd time zone and elapsed hour tracking.
Most of a second time zone; a 12hr format second time zone bezel being non-ideal to differentiating AM/PM, but I suppose what it does offer is a fine perk to a 12hr elapsed time bezel
