We are delighted to bring you another exclusive interview with one of the leading independent watch makers, Peter Speake-Marin. His consummate skill and vision have made Speake-Marin’s exclusive timepieces technically superlative and aesthetically distinctive.
MWM: How is business?
PS-M: Despite the problems experienced by the large brands and groups making volumes of products, we are steadily growing every year as we become better known in the market and in general the tendency in buying luxury watches is becoming more informed and educated which works to our advantage since we make products which have inherent value in quality and originality opposed to products which are simply brand valued.
MWM: What are you currently working on?
PS-M: We have multiple new projects which will be unveiled during SIHH in 2017. You will see a new side to Speake-Marin which we have been developing for the last 4 years. It is a very exciting time for us.
MWM: Tell us something we don’t know about Speake-Marin Watches?
PS-M: They will survive for ever, not simply because of the mechanics but because of their classism that transcends fashion. In the long term they will become highly collectable because so few have ever been made yet they remain highly desirable.
MWM: What watch do you wear?
PS-M: Normally the Resilience, it was the first wrist watch I designed and holds a special place in my heart and life, we still make it today and is in a sense my signature piece.
MWM: Apart from your own brand, what watch would you like to own?
PS-M: Any made by another independent watchmaker, it’s not about the product for me but the person behind the watch.
MWM: What do you like best about the Watch business?
PS-M: The constant creativity and development combining design, art and mechanics.
MWM: What don’t you like about the Watch business?
PS-M: The occasional arrogance and ego that can be sometime founds with in it. Following the recession this diminished but it still exists.
MWM: What is next on the horizon for you?
PS-M: The constant development as a brand. To develop a brand in the watch industry takes a lifetime, I have only spent 16 years since my family name became a brand name, I am just beginning, the adventure continues.
About Peter Speake-Marin
Peter Speake‐Marin was born Peter Neville Speake in 1968 in Essex, England, to an English mother and Welsh father. When Peter reached the end of his secondary school education, he originally had the intention of entering the world of jewellery.
However, after a visit to a kindly careers teacher, Peter entered the world of watchmaking. He began his horological education at Hackney Technical College in London in 1985 and then continued his studies at WOSTEP, the prestigious Swiss watchmaking school in Neuchâtel.
Having completed the WOSTEP high-end complications course, Peter returned to England. He was eventually employed by Somlo Antiques then based in the Piccadilly arcade, London where he was tasked with establishing the watch restoration department of this prestigious antiques house.