The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, or SIHH, takes place in January in Geneva. In most cases, we in the watch media world tend to wait until the end of the show before naming our favorites, especially since our meetings with many of the horological heavyweights there ? IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Vacheron, Cartier, etc. ? tend to be spread out across the week. It is exceedingly rare that one discovers one of those favorites in the very first appointment on the very first day, but that is what happened this year with Speake-Marin, which exhibited at SIHH alongside other indie brands as part of the Carré des Horlogers collective. Despite the departure of its eponymous founder, Peter Speake-Marin, this Swiss-made brand has defiantly clung to its British heritage, never more boldly or audaciously than with the introduction of the new London Chronograph, a watch that truly meets its mandate as a ticking embodiment of Swinging London ? its colorful design calling to mind the early Beatles, Carnaby Street, and yes, Austin Powers, all while still channeling an immense level of horological cred with its use of a vintage Valjoux 92 chronograph movement. The Speake-Marin London Chronograph combines an avant-garde design with a classic vintage movement.
To start with the titanium case, we have here the latest example of Speake-Marin?s now-emblematic ?Piccadilly? construction, named for the London neighborhood of the antique shop where Speake-Marin cut his horological t...