Swiss-based British watchmaker Peter Speake-Marin has added an aviation-inspired chronograph to his Spirit collection. Named for the first modern carrier-based airplane used by the British Royal Navy to protect its fleet during World War II, the Seafire is the first chronograph watch to bear the Speake-Marin name — a significant fact, since the brand has produced various complicated watches in the past, including minute repeaters,tourbillons, and perpetual calendars. The Spirit Seafire has central hours and minutes, date at 3 o’clock, a central chornograph seconds hand, chronograph counters at 12 o’clock (elapsed hours) and 6 o’clock (elapsed minutes), and a small seconds wheel at 9 o’clock in the shape of Speake-Marin’s “topping tool” emblem.
Many of the elements on the matte black dial — hour markers, minutes chapter ring, chronograph subdials, date, and tips of the skeletonized hour and minutes hands — are coated with a white Super-LumiNova that glows bright green in the dark. Speake-Marin has used Roman numerals — not often found on chronograph subdials — for the minutes counter at 6 o’clock, which helps distinguish the elapsed hours from the elapsed minutes (in Arabic numerals) at 12 o’clock and also echoes the style of other Speake-Marin watches. The “Piccadilly” case — another Speake-Marin hallmark — is made of grade 5 titanium and measures 42 mm in diameter. It has s solid caseback engraved with the brand motto, “Fight, Love, and Persevere.” The Speake-Marin Spirit Seafire comes on a brown leather strap with titanium folding buckle.
Speake-Marin Spirit Seafire, front (above) and back (below)
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That Speake-Marin would be a winner but at 42mm is it a ladies watch??? The others, one looks like a Breitling and the other a Cartier…nothing new or innovative here then!!
That Speake-Marin would be a winner but at 42mm is it a ladies watch??? The others, one looks like a Breitling and the other a Cartier…nothing new or innovative here then!!