The new Black/Platinum Breguet Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887

First presented in 2017, the Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887 came as a surprise, initiating an unprecedented design for the collection. This highly complex Breguet watch, first available in a platinum case with a blue dial, actually teased the complete revamp of the collection that occurred a year later. Three years later for the 220th anniversary of the tourbillon, the collection was expanded to include a pink gold model with a slate/brown dial. This year, this timepiece combining a tourbillon, a perpetual calendar and an equation of time resurfaces in a striking version mixing a platinum case and a black dial.

The Marine Equation Marchante 5887 has to be seen as the technical flagship of the brand’s nautical-inspired collection. While retaining the rather bold and striking look found in other members of this family, which includes time-and-date models, an alarm watch, a chronograph, a classic tourbillon and the Hora Mundi traveller’s model, it adds a fair dosage of complications. Besides an ultra-thin base movement with peripheral rotor and tourbillon regulator, it also includes a QP with retrograde date and an Equation Marchante, which 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. And like the rest of the collection, it pays tribute to the prestigious title “Watchmaker to the French Royal Navy” awarded to Abraham-Louis Breguet by Louis XVIII on October 27th, 1815, a year after he was appointed a member of the Board of Longitude.

But now on with the newest member of the Breguet Marine collection, this Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887PT, with an appealing combination of silver-toned case with a deep black dial punctuated by silver-toned accents – a classic colour scheme but one that works. The Tourbillon Equation Marchante is housed in a sizeable case of 43.9mm in diameter, yet with a fairly controlled thickness of 11.9mm – thanks to its ultra-thin base movement. The case retains classic elements of the collection, such as the fluted caseband, the wave-shaped crown-guard and lug modules integrated within the casebands. Equipped with sapphire crystals on both sides, it is water-resistant to 100m and, as you’ve guessed, it is here crafted from the noblest metal, 950 platinum – known for its durability and cold silver colour.

The dial, while retaining the same layout as other editions of the Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante, as well as the same wave-inspired guilloche pattern, now has a deep black main colour scheme with silver contrasting accents all around – for the brushed chapter ring, the hands, the tourbillon bridge and white gold frames around the QP indications. The applied Roman numerals are made of blackened gold, to match the whole black-silver theme. The only touch of colour is found on the tip of the solar time minute hand. Luminescent material is found on the main hands and on the pyramid-shaped hour markers.

Let’s talk about the display… In the centre, the Breguet Marine 5887 boasts 4 hands. Two are classic ones, indicating the hours and minutes for calendar time. Then, there’s the perpetual calendar, with its central retrograde date hand (pointing at an arched date track), and with two windows for the day (between 10 and 11 o’clock) and the month and leap year (between 1 and 2 o’clock). At 7 o’clock, under a transversal bridge and a sapphire crystal is the one-minute tourbillon, housed in a titanium cage and running at a fast frequency of 4Hz. There’s also a discreet power reserve indicator between 7 and 8.30 o’clock.

But what about the other indications… The so-called Equation Marchante or running equation of time. This 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 – the latter is visible through the sapphire crystal on top of the tourbillon. Solar time is indicated by the fourth central hand, finished with a gold-plated, diamond-polished and fluted ring.

At the back is the in-house calibre 581DPE, wound by an engraved platinum peripheral rotor with a wave motif. This movement combines tradition, with bridges hand-engraved with the silhouette of the Royal Louis, a Royal Navy warship commissioned in 1752, and a compass rose on the barrel, but also modernity. It boasts a solid 80-hour power reserve and its fast-beating tourbillon features a titanium cage and a Breguet balance-spring and escapement wheel made in silicon.

Worn on a black rubber strap closed by a triple platinum folding clasp, this new edition of the Breguet Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887 is released as part of the permanent collection. As the top-of-the-range model, it comes with a price to match its status, EUR 292,800 or CHF 249,800 (prices incl. taxes). For more details, please visit breguet.com.