I think everyone should have one timepiece in their collection that’s a little out of the ordinary. It doesn’t have to be something super complex, colourful or avant-garde, just a watch that goes against the norm a little. For me, the Speake Marin Academic watch is the perfect balance of traditionalism and non-conformity and for Watches & Wonders Shanghai 2023, we’re rolling the “red” carpet out – quite literally – for the brand new Speake Marin Academic Rouge edition.
Speake Marin Academic Rouge - Credit Speake Marin
I distinctively remember back in 2017 when the future of Speake Marin was seemingly questionable after the departure of the independent watch brand’s founder. Thankfully, CEO and now President of the brand, Christelle Rosnoblet, swooped in to save the day, unveiling plenty of well thought-out, quintessentially British designs since 2018. One of these is the One & Two Academic watch, a design created by the always talented designer Eric Giroud.
With large “spade-and-whip” hands and a tubular Piccadilly case, the Speake Marin Academic watch has a wonderfully lavish antiquity to it that is off-set by contemporary technologies and finishes. Some of my personal favourite designs from the collection arrived earlier this year at Watches & Wonders Geneva 2023. These included an Academic White and Academic Black Tie, both beautifully monochromatic.
Speake Marin Academic Rouge - Credit Speake Marin
Speake Marin continues to focus on just one colour with the launch of their next Academic novelty. The Speake Marin Academic Rouge watch is red in the face – literally – with a beautiful deep red display. In the press release, the British-Swiss brand describes
Red is the colour of the spectrum that attracts the most attention. Associated with numerous qualities, from the most stimulating to the most noble, it symbolizes passion, love, and courage. Yet even greater than its mysterious power and energy, red also carries with it an emotional appeal of confidence, strength, and desire. Passion and elegance unite here to create an inimitable style, a style that in France is called “l’art de vivre”, recognized and admired throughout the world.
Speake Marin Academic Rouge - Credit Speake Marin
It seems choosing the perfect shade of red for the Speake Marin Academic Rouge watch wasn’t as simple as just asking the designers for a “deep red”. Instead, they landed on 188C, a Pantone shade of red that is a medium dark shade of pink-red, not unlike a ruby or a glass of deep, red wine. It’s definitely a luxurious colour and one that is applied to the dial using vibrant lacquer.
The statement Roman numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock are also finished in red, this time Billight red matte with glow in the dark Superluminova. What’s pretty amazing about the Speake Marin Academic Rouge watch is that in the daytime, legibility is fairly standard, if not slightly unobscured since the red-on-red isn’t the most distinguishing. However, turning the lights out reveals the numerals with bold, blue-coloured luminescence.
Speake Marin Academic Rouge - Credit Speake Marin
The dial of the Speake Marin Academic Rouge watch presents the familiar, albeit unusually-placed small seconds counter at 2 o’clock with a white printed track and silvered hand. To match, the heart and spade-shaped rhodium hour and minute hands are silvered and contrast nicely to the deep red backdrop.
For the case, the Speake Marin Academic Rouge watch elects the brand’s iconic Piccadilly architecture in grade 5 titanium. It is available in 38mm or 42mm sizing with a thickness of 10.5mm. There’s also the large fluted crown, also in titanium, sapphire crystal glass on both the front and back with anti-reflective coating and a grey leather strap with a titanium folding buckle.
Speake Marin Academic Rouge - Credit Speake Marin
Finally, powering the Speake Marin Academic Rouge watch is the in-house Calibre SMA03 automatic winding movement. It boasts a fully integrated micro-rotor which offers a power reserve of 52 hours. It is beautifully hand decorated and angled with haute Horlogerie finishing, all of which can be admired through the transparent exhibition back.
Speake Marin is not a brand I’ve had much hands-on time with, but I’ve always really enjoyed admiring their releases distantly online. As an enthusiast of integrated sports watches, I’ve typically only ever taken notice of their Ripples collection but after today and seeing the brand experiment with cool colours on their Academic watch, I’m definitely paying more attention to what else the watchmaker has going on.
Speake Marin Academic Rouge - Credit Speake Marin
I love the dial complexity - especially the way these watches have the numerals raised off the main surface, and despite being coloured in the same hue as the dial, they still demand all your attention. The movement here is also not to be ignored with its chronometer-worthy accuracy and immaculate finishing. If it wasn’t for the price tag, I’d snatch one of these right up.
Technical Specifications:
- Brand: Speake Marin
- Model: Academic Rouge
- Price: Available upon request
- Material: Grade 5 titanium
- Movement: Calibre SMA03 automatic, in-house
- Complications: Hours, minutes, small seconds
- Dial: Deep red lacquer
- Size: 38mm or 42mm with 10.5mm height
- When the reviewer would personally wear it: To some fancy event, wearing a dress in the same deep red.
- A friend we’d recommend it to first: Someone that wants to expand their typically conventional-looking timepiece collection with something a bit different and a little quirky.
- Best characteristics of the watch: The dial, for sure. The colour is stunning and I love the raised numerals and Alice in Wonderland-esque hands.
- The worst characteristics of the watch: I don’t hate anything about it, but I’d love it even more if it came in 36mm.
