Speake-Marin Makes a Splash with Ripples and Academic Models at Watches and Wonders 2023

Founded in 2002 by English watchmaker Peter Speake-Marin, the brand has grown from making time-only wristwatches to manufacturing models with single hands, date, jumping hours, perpetual calendars, tourbillons and minute repeaters. Acquired in 2012 by Christelle Rosnoblet, who is the brand’s CEO and President, Speake-Marin recently unveiled its new Academic and Ripple collections, each with two dial options, at Watches and Wonders 2023, held in Geneva. 

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Known for its blend of boldness, style and passion, the brand has tried to reinterpret contemporary watch architecture. GMT India examines how Speake-Marin Ripples and Academic models live up to expectations. 

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Academic Variants

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The new titanium ‘Piccadilly’ cased collection now comes in two variations, namely Academic Black Tie and Academic White, available in two sizes of 38 mm and 42 mm respectively. 

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While Academic Black Tie comes with a polished black lacquer dial, topped with applied Roman numeral hour markers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock, Academic White has a white lacquer dial displaying Roman numeral hour markers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock. 

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A small 60 seconds counter at 1:30 matches the colour of each dial. The flange includes markings on the grey minutes track every five minutes in orange. The heart-shaped hands are plated in rhodium. 

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Powering both watches is the in-house Calibre SMA03 automatic movement with a fully integrated microrotor, delivering 52 hours of power reserve. The watches are finished on dial-matching leather straps with titanium folding buckles.

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Ripples Collection

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At Watches and Wonders 2023, Speake-Marin launched two new variants of its Ripples collection: Ripples Date and Ripples Blue Jeans (limited to 60 pieces). Both watches come in 40 mm ‘La City’ stainless steel cases with dial colour-matching Ripples patterns, along with heart-shaped, rhodium-plated hour and minute hands.

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Each watch comes with a small second counter at 1.30, matching the dial colour. The black dial variant comes with a black background and a large date window at 6 o’clock while the blue dial variant gets the Speake-Marin logo at 6 o’clock. Also, common to both variants is the crown at 3 o’ clock that comes with dual guards. 

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The white dial model is powered by in-house Calibre SMA03-T while the black model gets the SMA03-TD automatic movement with 52 hours of power reserve. Turning each watch over reveals the microrotor with hand-finished bridges, inner angle, rhodium-plated, Geneva stripes and four visible screws.

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Each watch is finished on an integrated stainless-steel bracelet with a stainless-steel folding buckle.

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