Speake-Marin: The Antidote to Generic Watchmaking

The watch industry has a big problem.
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It’s something I’ve noticed more and more. Brands are losing their identities in favour of pleasing the masses. It’s hurting creativity.
Some watches have become so generic that the logo could be removed, another brand put in its place and nobody would bat an eyelid. This has happened across plenty of industries, as social media has made it easier for the opinions of the masses to influence previously isolated design choices. Gone are the days of stubborn CEOs telling us what we like before we knew it, Steve Jobs was great at this. Perhaps we need people like that back.

“Some people say, "Give the customers what they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.” - Steve Jobs

This is by no means a global trend, however. There are brands out there that don’t seem to care about the opinions of the many, whose design team live in a vacuum and aren’t affected by the pull of mass market appeal. These are the brands that are most interesting to me because they are unapologetically themselves and have the potential to lead a design focussed revolution in their respective industries. One of these brands is the relatively young, but personality rich Speake-Marin.

Who Is Peter Speake-Marin?

To me, Speake-Marin has always been one of those brands that live in this weird, fringe, alternate reality. They’re not quite mainstream, they don’t have the history of some of their peers, and you never really see them anywhere. As I was researching this story, I found that they aren’t even written about very much. A glitch in the matrix? Maybe.

The brand was founded in 2002 by British watchmaker Peter Speake-Marin. Alumni of London’s Hackney Technical College and later, WOSTEP in Switzerland, Peter spent the early days of his career doing watch restoration in the UK before relocating to Le Locle to develop complications with Renaud & Papi (now Audemars Piguet).
His very first piece, The Foundation Watch, was a blend of Swiss craftsmanship and British creativity. Take a look at the philosophical contrast between the traditional upper half of its dial, with its engraving and spade shaped hands. And it’s lower half with its sculptural tourbillon cage. To me, this is what Speake-Marin is about, embracing the duality of two different worlds.

The Christelle Rosnoblet Era

In 2012, the brand was acquired by Entrepreneur Christelle Rosnoblet, whose family owns French grocery franchise company Provencia. Christelle went on to refine and modernise the company, eventually buying shares in technical development company Le Cercle des Horlogers to take control of her brands' movement development and production. This makes Speake-Marin a completely independent company and allows it flexibility to create on its terms. Strong move.

After Peter left the company in 2017, the Rosnoblet family, under Christelle’s leadership, has taken the brand to the next level while keeping the spirit of its founder alive. It’s an inspiring story, and makes me think about what I would do if I had the pleasure of acquiring a brand in the future. Using Christelle’s playbook as a guide might just be the way to go.

A Taste Of My Favourite Speake-Marin Watches

Piccadilly Resilience Gold

The quintessential Speake-Marin watch. Look at the lugs, the enamel dial, the small seconds at 1:30, I love it. A quick note on the position of the small seconds, it may seem like a strange spot for it, but it makes total sense. At a glance, you can see that your watch is running, even if most of the dial is hidden under a cuff, and aesthetically it makes the dial feel light and airy. Speake-Marin remains the only brand to position it like this, the reason being that it’s a challenge that other brands might think unnecessary. Having the small seconds positioned at 1:30 means that the movement architecture must accommodate a gear train running through the setting mechanism. Not an easy choice, but the right one to make these watches feel special.

Almost coin like in its shape, the Piccadilly case pays homage to the brand's British heritage and gives way to some of the most iconic lugs in the industry. I mean, look at those things, jutting out like claws on a victorian era bath tub.

The Calibre SMA03 continues the fun with a some of the sharpest bevelling I’ve ever seen and the signature ‘thorny rose’ wheel covering the tungsten micro rotor. It’s luxurious in the most sensual way.
By the way, I just made up ‘Thorny rose’. I’m not actually sure what the wheel design is called, but that feels right to me.

Koala Art Series

Similar in case and movement to the Resilience Gold from above, but including a hand-painted dial, the Koala Art Series feels like home as someone who grew up on the east coast of Australia. The watch was created in crazy low numbers (3 for the 38 mm and 6 for the 42 mm) to benefit the Queensland Koala Crusaders. Along with sounding like the Australian branch of the power rangers, the organisation champions the protection of one of our most iconic, albeit lazy animals. According to them, “this generation has the last opportunity to preserve the koala in the wild in SE Queensland”. This is both shocking and sad, if you’ve never seen a koala in person, they’re like little sleepy, drunk teddy bears (although they’re not actually bears).
It’s nice to see a brand like Speake-Marin care about a problem that couldn’t be  more removed from them. It speaks loudly of their compassion.

Ripples Gold

This is a controversial one for me. I didn’t really like the Ripples collection when it was launched in 2022. To me, it felt a little trend focused. At the time, everyone was jumping on the integrated sports watch bandwagon and I felt we didn’t need any more. After a few years, however, I’ve had some time to marinate and when they released the Gold version at Watches & Wonders 2025, it all made sense to me. Removing the bracelet and adding a rose gold case made it all come together. The dial is gorgeous with its grey-brown hue and the hands, oh boy the hands! Like most Speake-Marin watches, the hands echo the very ones found on Big Ben with its spade shaped hour hand. They are easily some of the most romantic hands in the business.

Tourbillon Purple Hour

Without knowing it was just released (I try to avoid the avalanche of watch releases when the big fairs are on), I was drawn to this, more technical version of the brands' signature Piccadilly. The Tourbillon Purple hour is powered by the in-house calibre SMA05. It’s a movement that lends itself to creating an almost topographical depth effect on the dial. The barrel and tungsten micro rotor are sunken into the sea of purple, and two polished bridges step down to hold them in place. It’s an exceptional use of three-dimensional space, and the effect is a gravitational downward pull for the eye. Awesome.

Christelle’s Speake-Marin is something of an enigma to me. It’s incredibly creative, technically capable, and bold in its identity, yet it flies under the radar and doesn’t scream for attention like some of its contemporaries.
Is it an underrated brand? Absolutely, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
I’m generalising here, but I think the average luxury watch consumer doesn’t want to stand out. They want what everyone else is wearing and avoid being considered different. There’s safety in numbers when it comes to collecting, and it limits the fun that can be had in this hobby.

CEO’s like Christelle are a rare breed in that she has leaned in to her brand's uniqueness and personality. Even if it costs her industry-wide appeal. Speake-Marin doesn’t make watches that it thinks the public will want. It makes watches that inspire it, feeds its technical and creative passion, and doesn’t compromise its identity for the chance to fit in. This is how you create a desirable brand over the long term. Bravo Christelle!

Cya in the next one x

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