Having Peter visit us in California had been planned for many months. One might have been able to get a taste of my eager anticipation of his imminent arrival, by the lucky among you who were able to meet him in the store, whilst he visited.

He is quite simply, the most humble of all the geniuses in the watch-making world that I’ve had the good fortune to meet. Peter was here in our Redwood City store for Friday and Saturday, during which time I was able to have the opportunity to discuss many of his future projects and of course get to know him on a more personal level further, without the usual Basel interruptions that typically occur during our two previous times together in Switzerland.

I asked Peter where he saw The Watch Workshop (his company) heading in the future. Fiercely independent, he has many ideas and projects that only time and money will solve. Translation, we’ll have to be patient. I am not at liberty to divulge all of what we discussed, but I can mention a few exciting things for next year.

To give you dose of reality, his approx. production for 2004 was 100 pieces worldwide! He is shooting for 150-200 pieces this year, this includes several of the new complications debuted in Basel. The Serpent Calendar, the Quantieme Perpetual and a couple of the much anticipated Vintage Tourbillons.

The aspect that for me is very telling about Peter’s watch making, is his commitment to quality control. This to Peter is extremely important and at the possible prospect of upsetting a client by delaying delivery, he would rather err on the side of caution and check a watch again, to make sure that when the new owner wears his watch, it runs smoothly. This commitment I very much appreciate, as it isn’t always found in many of the larger production companies.

It is generally thought that a tourbillon watch isn’t a particularly rugged sport watch and I’d tend to agree, however from Peter’s viewpoint, it should certainly be able to withstand the rigors of wear whilst going about ones daily business. In reading his literature a common thread is his wish for his watches to run well for many years to come, certainly with regular service, and in fact to quote him directly “…designed with the vision that my watches will well outlive their maker” As Peter is slightly under 40, this sends a strong message! In one of our discussions, he brought up the point of how impressed he was with the older watches that, he serviced and restored whilst in London, were built solidly and after many years were still running well. This trait he decided was extremely important in designing his own watches. We are all to benefit from this. As much as his genre of watch is a piece of micro-mechanical wrist art, its performance over a long period of time is important to the whole concept of the watch making art. It’s no good for a watch to become mechanically defunct after a decade or so of daily use. I’d also add that stylistically, Peter’s watches will also stand the test of time, as they certainly aren’t fashion watches with good movements. His ability to blend classical and contemporary elements into the design of his watches is tremendous. 30 years from now, his watches will still be admired as well designed wristwatches that serviced routinely, will still run smoothly and keep good time.

I should get into some of technical aspects of the Vintage Tourbillon as they demonstrate Peter’s genius in watch design. A practical fellow, Peter designed an indicator on the dial above 6 o’clock, to show it’s wearer that it is time to wind this manual wind marvel. As a twin barrel watch it has a power reserve of 110 hours and at the 25 hour remaining mark, tells it’s wearer by the indicator disc changing from black to red. Whilst we are discussing the front of the watch, the tourbillon cage should be mentioned.

A very fine classical tourbillon finished beautifully resides under a mirror finished hand polished bridge sporting a little diamond as small gesture to the old way of using a diamond as the end stone in a tourbillon bridge. Peter’s is decorative and a function of aesthetics rather than being intrinsic to the mechanics of the movement.

Flipping the watch over, we find the twin power reserve indicators shown with serpentine hands over the two scales. The first is 110 down to 55 hours and the second then takes over from 55 down to 0, with the scale being red from the 25-hour mark on down. As simple as it appears, this type of indication is quite difficult to design and execute owing to the fact that the 2 mainspring barrels wind down together and not consecutively as one might think from the way the power reserve indicates. Again showing his classical horological training he has used screwed gold chatons to secure some of the jewels in the back plates.

I should mention that this tourbillon movement was developed in collaboration with Harry Winston for their Rare Timepiece collection. Peter was asked by Max Busser to help them design a tourbillon movement for their usage and Peter obliged with the agreement that it would be exclusive to them and his collection. Here we see the benefit of a strong well-established company being able to foot the bill for the huge development costs associated with the design, building and testing of a new movement, whilst allowing for Peter’s creative genius. It reminds me of the old art patrons of yesteryear, a very good aspect of human nature and one that advances us all. My obvious bias for Peter notwithstanding, I do much prefer his execution of the final product than Harry Winston’s Excenter Tourbillon. This is of course a purely subjective observation, but I did want to mention how much the Vintage Tourbillon represents Peter’s ability to design a great looking watch.

One of other watches he presented was the Piccadilly Quantieme Perpetual Moonphase, again a classical but definitely technical looking watch, with the oversized correctors emerging from the sides of the case. The dial has the traditional round dials for the day, month, date and leap year indicators together with the moonphase. I love his design of the day and month hands using a “polo stick” hand that makes reading clear and easy. Those acquiring the Piccadilly QP will have the main plate on the back of the movement hand engraved, which adds to the look of the watch and is in keeping with Peter’s love of tradition. Old English pocket watches, often having this elaborate hand engraving on the bridges and plates of the movement, inspire this. Having not seen this watch since April in Basel, I had forgotten how great a watch it is. We were also treated to a brand new execution of the QP, which Peter had finished just 9 days prior to his CA visit.

Here we are treated to a view usually seen only by watchmakers, that of the gears, cams and wheels associated with the perpetual calendar mechanism, which reside under the dial. Peter has cut away a disc of the dial around the day, date and month dials. For those technically inclined this is a welcome addition.

The Speake-Marin Serpent Calendar is very much a watch that will appeal to many of you. At the risk of sounding redundant, it again blends classical styling with Peter’s brilliant design touch. The use of a serpentine date hand is not unique in the watch world, although the shape of Peter’s is definitely his own. One can also find that shape on the power reserve indicators for the Vintage Tourbillon.

In closing, I invite those of you who haven’t laid eyes on the Speake-Marin collection to stop by and feast your eyes on some of the best looking watches being offered by any of the great watch houses. The pedigree is strong and these are timepieces that will stand the test of time.


- Tim Jackson