The Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887 Adopts a Solid Platinum Armour

The Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887, which made its debut in 2017, ushered in a new design for the line. This exceedingly intricate Breguet watch, which debuted in a platinum case with a blue dial, foreshadowed the collection's entire overhaul a year later. After three years, to commemorate the tourbillon's 220th anniversary, the line was enhanced with a pink gold model with a slate/brown dial. This year, this timepiece, which combines a tourbillon, a perpetual calendar, and a time equation, returns with a platinum casing and a black dial (Ref. 5887PT/92/5WV). This is one of the rarest and most fascinating watchmaking complications. 

The Marine Equation Marchante 5887 must be regarded as the technological flagship of the brand's nautical-inspired range. Aside from an ultra-thin base movement, it features a QP (quantième perpétuel), which is a French name for a perpetual calendar with a retrograde date and an Equation Marchante. And, like the rest of the series, it honours the distinguished title "Watchmaker to the French Royal Navy" bestowed upon Abraham-Louis Breguet by Louis XVIII on October 27, 1815, a year after he was appointed a member of the Board of Longitude.

The Tourbillon Equation Marchante is housed in a 43.9mm platinum case with a thickness of 11.9mm. The lugs are integrated within the case, there is a crown at 3 o’clock with wave-shaped crown guards, and a polished bezel. The dial is crafted from white gold, and has black finishing, hand-guilloché "wave" motif. The 18 ct gold appliqué, black Roman hour markers are placed below a brushed silvered circle. On top of each hour marker is a pyramid in 18 ct gold and luminescent material. There is a date with retrograde hand from 9 to 3 o'clock, graduated from 1 to 31, applied 18 ct rhodium-plated gold windows for the day at 10:30, month and leap year at 1:30. The rhodium-plated hour, minute hands have a  Breguet tip in 18 ct gold, faceted with Super-LumiNova®. Then the tourbillon opens at 5 o'clock. 

This complication simultaneously displays the difference between mean solar time (calendar hours and minutes) with blue emissions and true solar time with baton, gold-plated rings (used since ancient times). The date is marked by a ship’s anchor hand and the months are marked through an inverted triangle on the tourbillon with the first alphabet of the month. The timepiece 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 three hands: one Breguet-style hour, minute with a luminescent tip for calendar time, and the other finished with a baton, gold-plated ring, and a faceted golden sun for the solar time. The 60-second tourbillon features a titanium carriage with a silicone Breguet balance spring. Displayed in an aperture between 7 and 8:30, this timepiece has a discreet power reserve indicator. 

Powering the watch is Calibre 581DPE, numbered and signed Breguet. This self winding movement has a flat silicon spiral, a silicon escapement wheel, inverted rib anchor, and silicon horns with a single barrel offering an 80-hour power reserve. Turning the watch over showcases the sapphire crystal caseback with an engraved platinum peripheral oscillating weight decorated with a "wave" motif wrapped 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. The watch is finished on a black textured rubber strap with a triple-blade 950 platinum folding clasp.