BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Over 200 years ago Abraham-Louis Breguet put his first tourbillon into a watch, improving the accuracy of pocket watches and solidifying the prowess of the house of Breguet. It’s perhaps not the most famous development in watches in the grand scheme of things, but the tourbillon is still in use today mostly as an interesting addition to a watch. Some watchmakers have improved the tourbillon’s design by adding more axes to it. Others (including Breguet) have used futuristic materials or simply added more tourbillons to their watches. Nevertheless, it’s good to see so many watchmakers using this complication to this day.
The newest addition to the Breguet collection is the new Marine Tourbillon 5577. The Marine collection was officially overhauled by Breguet in time for the 2018 Baselworld expo, but we first saw where they were going with it a year earlier with the Marine Équation Marchante 5887, one of the most complex watches Breguet currently makes. That watch was the only option of the revamped range to have a tourbillon fitted, and while it’s definitely exquisite, it is very big at just under 44mm, it’s pricey too at over £200,000.Â
The new watches measure 42.5mm x 9.35mm, so, quite tiny by comparison. And at £132,500 (€161,300) for 18k rose gold and £152,200 (€177,600) for platinum the new Marine Tourbillon watches are a relative bargain. The watches are 100m water resistant, so you could potentially do something relatively sporty with one on.
It’s not like you’re being shortchanged here, either. The dials are exquisitely engraved by hand using a rose lathe. Breguet’s guilloché dials are simply exquisite, some of the best in the world. It’s a shame that they didn’t put any guilloché on these watches then, the current Marine range uses waves that overlap but they’re entirely missing here. Still, the dials do look great, thanks to their offset design and lumed Breguet-style hands.Â
The offset dial makes room for the tourbillon which is on full display from both sides, and you can even see your wrist through it. The venerable calibre 581 is in use here. It’s Breguet’s extra-thin self-winding tourbillon calibre. It has an 80-hour power reserve despite being only 3mm thick. That peripheral rotor which orbits around the edge of the movement certainly helps, and other innovations such as a silicone balance spring and a tourbillon cage made of titanium, add to the allure.
Overall, these watches are a very welcome addition to the Marine lineup, and I’m surprised it took Breguet this long to make them. Whether you want something sportier or dressier, Breguet offers a rubber strap, a leather strap and even a bracelet option matching the metal of the case, although that will have a huge impact on the price. Either way, if you can afford one there’s an option for you
