Geneva Watch Days is a festival-like celebration of Swiss watchmaking that unfolds along the shores of Lake Geneva. This year’s edition, held from September 4 to 7, brought together seminars, roundtables, and product launches, all in the presence of the industry’s key players. Collectors, young watchmakers, designers, and anyone remotely curious about Swiss watches were welcomed. Among the 66 brands exhibiting was Speake Marin, marking this celebration of watchmaking with a special timepiece: the Openworked Tourbillon Purple Hour.
The Openworked Tourbillon is in many ways a traditional watch. It remains one of the brand’s original pillar collections, and as a tourbillon, it stands as a genuine homage to classic high watchmaking. Dressed in traditional garb (gold case, neutral dial) it serves as a classic watch suited to the boardroom, yet with enough boldness to carry into more spirited settings. A few years ago, Speake Marin decided to apply hits of bright color to the dial components, transforming each into a unique, modern statement piece. For GWD, it takes that to yet another level, with two shades of ultraviolet purple PVD coating applied to the plates, and then repeated on the dazzling purple calf leather strap with an embossed denim motif.
It is inspired by what is known as the “purple hour,” when the sky is filled with beautiful shades of violet, blue and purple as twilight approaches. Topping out at 42mm wide, it’s not a huge watch, but it’s big enough that the ultra-purple makeover makes a huge statement. As larger, bolder watches start to gradually come into fashion again, it’s the right watch for the right time. Even the 38mm version is a bold departure from the average tourbillon
Adding to the spectacle is the movement architecture itself. The depth created by the layers of openworked components, combined with the intersecting lines of the bridges give it the appearance of an elevated freeway above a cityscape. Super-LumiNova is applied to the gray lacquered hands, to the purple minutes flange, and the pointer on the power reserve indicator at 7:30 – they all glow blue in the dark.
Speake Marin opts for the flying tourbillon, so-called because it is fixed only at one position rather than two, leaving it more open and expressive. Here it is held by a rhodium-plated bridge in in the shape of the brand’s symbol, the topping tool, which is given a mirror polish finish. It’s positioned at 1:30, traditionally Speake Marin’s spot on the dial reserved for the seconds indicator.
The SMA05 calibre is one of the most sophisticated of Speake Marin’s 12 in-house movements, created at its workshop, Le Cercle Des Horlogers in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The sapphire caseback reveals a dark edgy finish, with black rhodium-plated bridges, surrounded by plates given a Côtes de Genève finish. The case holding it all together is grade 5 titanium.
The Purple Openworked Tourbillon is a great example of the kind of modern panache that has infused the Speake Marin lineup since it was acquired in 2012 by French entrepreneur and watch collector Christelle Rosnoblet.
In 2015, Christelle Rosnoblet invested in – and later became the largest shareholder of – the prestigious watchmaking atelier Le Cercle des Horlogers, Speake Marin’s internal workshop. This integration of production, design, testing and finishing is what gives Speake Marin the creative freedom and production capabilities to make watches that veer from conventional design codes. It is uniquely able to experiment at the highest levels of watchmaking, with results as striking as they are sophisticated.