Masamasa Hirota, also known as Hakase, editor-in-chief of the watch magazine Chronos Japan, will be publishing a series of five columns on webChronos about masterpiece movements, written in 2024. The fourth installment will focus on the Caliber 588N2, made by Breguet, known as the father of the tourbillon.
[Article featured in Movement Book 2024]
The classic yet new "Cal.588N2" created by the father of the tourbillon
The Classic Double Tourbillon 5347 is a tourbillon with a base that houses two barrels and two tourbillons, rotating once every 12 hours. Released in 2006, this model represented the ultimate in tourbillons, which rotate a heavy rotating body.
Breguet later skeletonized the movement, Cal. 588N, and released it as the "Classique Double Tourbillon 5345 Quai de l'Horloge." To rotate a heavy rotating body, it is necessary to balance the weight as much as possible. Breguet deliberately added weight reductions that disrupted the balance, without impairing functionality at all. It's no surprise that a Breguet representative admitted that adjusting the weight was extremely difficult.
The Caliber 588N2 used in this model is based on the Caliber 581T, introduced in the 1980s. Developed by Daniel Roth, Breguet, and Nouvelle Lemania, this movement is the ancestor of the modern tourbillon and a true classic. By arranging two of these movements side by side and connecting them with a differential gear, Breguet not only improved accuracy but also generated enough torque to rotate the movement once every 12 hours. While the mechanism is unique, this movement also has a very classical background. As proof of this, the balance spring is a classic Nivarox rather than a silicon one, an anomaly for a Breguet model. And to emphasize its classicism, the back of the movement features an engraving of Breguet's former Parisian workshop, No. 39 Quai de l'Horloge.
At the same time, Breguet has made this completely new complication suitable for everyday use. In theory, such a large and heavy rotor would be extremely vulnerable to shocks, but Breguet has added a safety mechanism around the differential gear to prevent damage to the movement. Furthermore, the feel of setting the hands and winding the movement is extremely smooth, almost identical to that of a simple movement. No other movement can turn such a heavy rotor so smoothly, and it can be said that Breguet's know-how has come to fruition in this movement.
