Rereading this today, I still feel the same way about Independent Watchmaking as a whole, and am more compelled to help these guys get their message out and help collectors realize their genius....
"A viewpoint of micro-mechanical wrist art.
I'm going to pen a few words about Speake-Marin watches, in doing so, my challenge is to write more about the watch as an art piece and less about what can often be the rather tedious, the facts and figures regarding the number of jewels etc.
I’ll speak from experience as I have one of Peter’s superb Piccadilly’s, a red gold execution with a lovely porcelain enamel dial sporting those classical black roman numerals that I love.
Those of you who know me well, are aware of my penchant for genuine enamel dials, particularly with roman numerals. It has probably got something to do with growing up in England and seeing the grand-father clocks in various friends homes with their roman numeral faces. Wearing a watch likes this gives me great pleasure and as we all work very hard around here, a reminder that once in a while we should throw ourselves a bone. Now this goes without saying that our spouses/ or significant others probably ought to be taken care of first, but at the end of the day “All work and no play makes jack a dull boy”, so go ahead and treat yourself once in a while.
For me, the most impressive part about Peter is that he is not only a genius watchmaker, capable of creating superb complications, but almost more importantly, able to design an absolutely beautiful watch. I find this a rare quality in the horological world. One typically finds great designers and superb watchmakers collaborating to create lovely watches, so to find a single watchmaker and designer is very rare. Now before I get yelps about what is beautiful, as it is of course fairly subjective, remember this only my viewpoint! It puts Peter into an extremely small and exclusive club. I’m particularly thrilled to see a Brit in this club for obvious reasons.
So I invite you to take a look at Peter’s creations in person, come in and get a feel for what makes him tick. I was intrigued, I think you’ll be also.
Please call me with any questions about Peter or his splendid watches.
Cheers,
Tim"