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Breguet Unveils Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 5887


Breguet, best known for its exquisite haute horologerie and storied history, has added to its list of 2020 releases a new colorway for its Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 5887 watch. This is the first update to the 5887 design since the design’s initial release in 2017, which included a rose-gold case/silver-dial model as well as a platinum-case/blue dial edition. The latest release combines a rose-gold case with a gold dial in a slate-gray color while retaining all of the original design elements seen in the previous iterations, including the sailing motif, tourbillon, and asymmetrical designs that first brought the watch attention.

The new watch’s 43.9 x 11.75-mm integrated rose gold case has small crown guards, fluted sides, and a stepped bezel, secured to the wrist via an alligator strap with a gold folding clasp. The dial’s slate-grey color is broken up by accents of brushed silver on the minute ring and rose gold on the Roman numeral hour markers. The outer minute ring, with its trapezoidal indices and off-center style, gives the appearance of a ship’s steering wheel. The outer edge sports a flowing, engraved pattern, while the center portion of the dial is enhanced with an engine-turned waves motif. Together, these elements provide the watch with a strong nautical appearance. Also on the dial is an analog-style date indicator on the top half, indicated by an anchor-tipped hand, while a power reserve is found at the 8 o’clock position, a date window at 10:30 and a month window just opposite of that.

Off-center on the bottom of the 5887 you’ll notice the watch’s open tourbillon mechanism, which is the beating heart of the extra-thin tourbillon Caliber 581 that powers the watch. This automatic movement features an 80-hour power reserve, perpetual calendar, and the highly uncommon “Equation of Time”  marchante complication which allows you to determine both your own local time via the circle-tipped hour and minute hands, as well as running solar time as determined by the second open-tipped minute hand on the dial.

The equation-of-time hand essentially serves as the addition of a sundial to the modern wristwatch. It measures time according to the current position of the sun, by which the length of a day varies by -16 to +14 minutes compared to average or civil time, and where this differs is called the equation of time. This mechanism functions accurately throughout the year via its perpetual calendar mechanism and an additional “cam” over the tourbillon which helps keep track of the time by only making a single rotation per solar year. It’s overall not a commonly used mechanism in luxury watchmaking, likely due to its relative obsolescence and conceptually difficult technology to understand, but it’s nonetheless one Breguet has worked tirelessly to produce within this recent addition to its collection.

The new Breguet Marine Tourbillon Équation Marchante 5887 will be available later this year, with the  brand set to market the complicated model for $215,000.

To read more about Breguet’s ocean Marine Collection, click here.

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  1. Lone Wolf

    EOT and tourbillon are my grail useless complications, and this watch has both. Too bad it costs as much as a house…

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  2. Tor Schofield

    The ‘Equation if Time’ function is essential to get an accurate fix on your location, to determine your longitude, using the sun. Shooting Polaris in the Northern hemisphere, will give you your latitude, so combining both will give you your position, with of course the watch set to GMT, but it is a nautical watch.

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