Renaissance incorporates an accumulation of knowledge and experience, and takes the classical Speake-Marin elements to another level: another level of elegance, with its slim design; another level of mechanical complexity, with its tourbillon and minute-repeater; and another level of aesthetic sophistication, with its open-dial architecture featuring harmonious bridge design and superlative finishing. 

What is more, the back of each Renaissance movement is decorated with a different intricate hand-engraved design making each one a unique piece. 

Renaissance means ‘rebirth’ and commonly refers to the era of cultural resurgence in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries when scholars revisited the intellectual and artistic treasures of Greco-Roman antiquity in an effort to achieve greatness in disciplines such as philosophy, art, architecture and literature. 

With this Renaissance timepiece, Peter Speake-Marin has embarked on his own intellectual journey of rediscovery to harness the classical elements of Speake-Marin and reinterpret them to extraordinary effect.

In Renaissance, all of the quintessential Speake-Marin qualities are there to behold, qualities that go right back to the Foundation Watch, the very first timepiece to bear the Speake-Marin name.

Renaissance features the iconic Piccadilly case; characteristic pleated crown; signature Foundation hands; intricate hand-engraving; and, as with the Foundation Watch and many subsequent models, the signature Speake-Marin topping-tool motif, here in the form of the tourbillon cage.

In addition to retracing all that he has worked on and developed since the inception of the eponymous Speake-Marin brand over a decade ago, Peter Speake-Marin has also drawn on his formative years working in antique timepiece restoration in Piccadilly, London where he worked extensively on minute-repeaters.

Inspiration

“This timepiece represents a fresh start in my work, which is why I named it ‘Renaissance”, elaborates Peter Speake-Marin. “I feel as though I have been on a continual journey of discovery and education that has encompassed my time in antique restoration in London, working on collaborative projects with other brands, and with my own brand in Switzerland. 

I wanted to create a timepiece that is, in a sense, a reinvention of my work, that puts much of my previous work together into one watch, reflecting on and bringing back all those elements that makes Speake-Marin what it is, that makes me who I am who I am, while at the same time taking a step forward in the evolution of my craft and of the Speake-Marin brand.”

Tourbillon

The Renaissance movement was developed to Speake-Marin's specifications by La Fabrique du Temps in Geneva. The 60-second tourbillon at 5 o’clock maximises timekeeping precision by averaging the effects of positional variations caused by gravity. But the tourbillon provides esthetical as well as technical benefits as it rotates, catching the light and the eye thanks to the fine finishing of its topping-tool shaped cage, with a heat-blued hand indicating seconds. Timekeeping precision is also ensured thanks to an isochronism-improving free-sprung balance and the lightweight, energy-efficient silicon escape wheel and anchor.

Minute Repeater

The minute repeater, activated by a slider on the case band at 9 o’clock, chimes the hours, the quarters-hours and minutes after the quarter-hours so enabling the ‘reading’ of the time without having to look at or see the dial. The Renaissance minute repeater features an all-or-nothing mechanism, found on the highest-quality minute repeaters, which avoids the incorrect time being chimed if the slide is incompletely activated. The regularity of the chimes are silently and precisely controlled by a centrifugal inertia regulator, that can be appreciated through the display back thanks to its large transparent sapphire bearing. The display-back also reveals the repeater hammers and gong with ‘London-Geneva’ engraved on the repeater mainspring bridge, while the straight drum-like sides and form of the Piccadilly case and the open dial act as the perfect amplifier for the crystalline chimes.

Synergy of Tourbillon and Minute Repeater

“I wanted to have a tourbillon both because my Foundation Watch features one and because of the way it brings life to the dial. It moves, it’s animated and it’s just beautiful to behold. A tourbillon emphasises the watchmaker’s art ”, says Peter.

“I learned about minute repeaters while restoring them in London and then continued to build modern repeaters as an independent in Switzerland. The ‘London-Geneva’ engraving on Renaissance’s chiming mechanism pays homage to London, where my journey into repeaters began, and continues in Geneva, where the movement is built.