The Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887, standing as the technical flagship of the Marine collection, embodies a mysterious aura and adopts a solid platinum armour to house its movement, the Calibre 581DPE
A complication as exceptional as this is mesmerising, the Equation Marchante records the difference between local time – the time that punctuates our daily lives – and solar time – the time dictated by the earth’s rotation relative to the sun. Featuring a perpetual calendar and a tourbillon, this Marine piece is made in platinum, a rare and durable precious metal renowned for its remarkable resistance to corrosion and enduring brilliance.
The origins of the contemporary collection trace back to the prestigious title “Watchmaker to the French Royal Navy” awarded to Abraham-Louis Breguet, founder of the eponymous workshop in 1775, by Louis XVIII on October 27, 1815, a year after he was appointed a member of the Board of Longitude.
This distinguished role crowned the revolutionary advances that the master made over four decades and drew on his scientific knowledge acquired during his training with his mathematician Father Joseph-François Marie, as well as renowned watchmakers such as Ferdinand Berthoud and Jean-Antoine Lépine. It enabled him to design marine chronometers, indispensable precision tools for astronomical navigation, and to calculate the position of ships in a fleet.
Montres Breguet’s rich heritage, which connects the House to the oceans and navigation, has paved the way for the Marine collection, a family of timepieces with a sporty silhouette and signature aesthetics that clearly evoke the codes of the marine world: a dial decorated with a hand guilloché ‘wave’ motif, a crown guard with an undulating profile, a hand finished with an anchor among other distinctive features.
Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887, ambassador of Breguet expertise, is a highly technical timepiece. Featuring three mechanical high complications – the running equation of time, perpetual calendar, and tourbillon – it is driven by the self-winding Calibre 581DPE.
Equation Marchante
This exceptional complication simultaneously displays the difference between mean solar time (calendar hours and minutes) and true solar time (used since ancient times, it can maximally deviate by up to 14 minutes late or 16 minutes early) thanks to an equation of time cam linked to a feeler to drive the equation lever.
With the Marine 5887, reading the time is instantaneous thanks to its two minute hands: one Breguet-style with a luminescent tip for calendar time, and the other, finished with a gold plated, diamond polished and fluted ring, for solar time.
Perpetual calendar
Acting like a mechanical diary, this complication indicates the date with an anchor-shaped retrograde hand that follows an arc-shaped scale, graduated from 1 to 31, located in the upper part of the dial. The day, month and leap year are displayed in two open windows at 10.30 and 1.30. This information is detailed in white on a black background for easy legibility.
Tourbillon
Created by Abraham-Louis Breguet and patented in 1801 to counter the adverse effects of gravity on the running of mechanical movements in pocket watches, the tourbillon features a titanium cage and a Breguet balance-spring made in silicon at around 5 o’clock.
To enhance the functionalities of the Marine Equation Marchante 5887, a blued gauge positioned between 7 o’clock and 8.30 provides information on the level of stored energy available, which amounts to 80 hours when the watch is fully wound.
An engraved platinum peripheral oscillating weight decorated with a ‘wave’ motif wraps around the hand chiselled back of the calibre 581DPE depicting the silhouette of the ”Royal Louis”, a Royal Navy warship commissioned in 1752. The barrel is decorated with a hand engraved compass rose.
Guilloché and engraving are delicate arts, executed by hand by exceptional artisans, true masters of their craft. Each pattern is patiently sculpted, each line traced with infinite precision, breathing unique, almost lifelike character into each timepiece. These pieces become much more than mere timepieces: they capture the essence of time and the soul of the artisan, offering a rare luxury — that of wearing an exclusive and inimitable work of art.
Presented in 2017, the Marine Equation Marchante 5887 initially featured a 43.9 mm diameter case available in platinum or pink gold with an ultramarine face. Three years later for the 220th anniversary of the tourbillon, the collection was expanded to include the warm reflections of pink gold combined with a chocolate-coloured dial.
This autumn, Montres Breguet completes the series by choosing the gentle strength of platinum for its fluted case. This precious grey metal is combined with the black hue for the ‘wave’ guilloché dial, evoking the image of an ocean cradled by the silvery glow of the Moon.
At the centre of this image, four hands play a precise role: the stylised pair of Breguet hands with Super-LumiNova filled tips indicating the hours and minutes, the hand with a golden circle indicating the solar time, and finally the hand with an anchor indicating the date. Raised blackened gold appliques Roman numerals are set on a wide circular-brushed ring, interspersed with luminescent dots and surmounted by gold hour-markers in the shape of nautical pennants.
