Speake-Marin
Brand History
Peter Speake-Marin is born in 1968 in Essex, England. After watchmaking training at Hackney Technical College in London and at the WOSTEP school in Neuchâtel, he works for seven years at the antiques dealer Somlo Antiques in London, restoring antique pocket watches, before moving to Switzerland in 1996 and developing complications for the atelier Renaud et Papi. In 2000 he makes in his spare time the "Foundation Watch", a large pocket tourbillon worked entirely by hand, which lays the stylistic foundations of the future brand. In 2002 he officially founds the house that bears his name — according to the account published on the official website, together with Daniela Marin — and during 2003 he presents his first wristwatch, the Piccadilly: a cylindrical case with a wavy crown and screwed lugs, inspired both by the years spent restoring antique pocket watches and by the movement holders used in high-end watchmaking ateliers.
During the 2000s the catalog expands with ever more elaborate complications: from the calendar with a snake-shaped hand (which will give rise to the Serpent Calendar line) to the Renaissance tourbillon minute repeater, up to the first in-house caliber, the SM2, introduced in 2009. A member of the AHCI (Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants), Peter Speake-Marin also collaborates during this period with other names in independent watchmaking, including Maximilian Büsser (MB&F) and Harry Winston. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 weighs on the maison's accounts, however: between 2007 and 2012 the founder progressively sells shares of the company to new investors, ending up, according to the sources consulted, no longer holding any as early as 2012.
Christelle Rosnoblet enters the company's ownership structure from 2012 and in June 2017 Peter Speake-Marin announces his definitive departure from the company, which thus passes under the control of the Rosnoblet family. In 2019 the headquarters moves from Bursins to Geneva, while production of the in-house calibers is concentrated at the manufacture Le Cercle des Horlogers, in Neuchâtel. Under the new ownership the brand pairs the historic Piccadilly with a new, sportier soul, the Ripples line, launched in 2022. Meanwhile, between 2024 and 2025, Peter Speake-Marin himself has returned to independent watchmaking with a project under his own name, distinct from the Speake-Marin brand that continues to bear his signature.
