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When we speak about independent watchmaking today, it’s often framed through contemporary brands that found their voice in the late ’90s or early 2000s, a moment in time when traditional techniques were being reborn in fresh identities. But among those voices, Speake-Marin was always one of the clearest—and paradoxically, one of the most reserved. His name was never about volume. It was about balance. Precision. Simplicity. And occasionally, just a flicker of rebellion under the surface.
I want to take you through his journey—because it deserves to be told not just as a career, but as a series of evolving philosophies on what it means to create.
Peter Speake was born in Essex, England, in 1968. He studied at Hackney Technical College and then went on to the prestigious WOSTEP programme in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. These were not idle years; they were formative in the truest sense, grounding him in the deepest layers of traditional horology, from restoration to high complication. After his studies, he began work with Somlo Antiques in London, where he restored some of the finest Breguets, marine chronometers, and early pocket watches. This work shaped him profoundly, and it’s easy to see echoes of it even in his earliest pieces.
