This week we’ve our last part of the coverage from the Sydney International Watch Fair that happened earlier in the month. This week, our focus is on Perrelet, Rebellion, and Speake-Marin.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve taken a look at six independent Swiss brands that showcased their best at the Sydney International Watch Fair – Artisans of Time, at the start of November. We have the last, but not the least, three brands that were exhibiting their pieces at the fair. Two of these, Rebellion and Speake-Marin you may be familiar with as we’ve done hands on reviews with the Rebellion Re-Volt, C43 Valtteri Bottas and the Speake-Marin Ripples. But to kick things off, we will have a look at Perrelet.
Perrelet
Perrelet is another old brand that’s been around since 1777, and you may be familiar with some of their pieces due to the spinning turbines on the dials of many of their pieces. Perrelet’s claim to fame is that Abraham-Louis Perrelet invented the automatic winding movement over 250 years ago. But since then, the brand has gone on to develop some of the most unique and interesting movements and dials, however, their popularity has waned in recent years as they have probably not been all that well known in modern luxury watch circles.
These days, whilst they still have their wide range of turbine watches, they also produce some very nice sports and dress watches. We were able to go hands-on with quite a few of these pieces, and perhaps several of the models that stuck out to us, were from the Lab Peripheral range. The Lab Peripheral Dual Time Big Date was one of those, and at 42 mm in diameter, actually fits the wrist pretty well. You’ll also notice that the rotor can be seen on the outer part of the dial and it spins around powering the 42 hour power reserve.
The standard Peripheral Lab with the small date and three hands wears just the same, and it has the same specifications as the dual time, however, the dial is just a bit cleaner and you can still see the rotor on the outer part of the dial, a nod to the automatic winding heritage and their iconic Turbine designs. These to us are clean and modern and were some of our favourites that we saw from the brand.
Outside of these, the Turbune range, of which there were many of, was also kind of fun to play with, as you shake the watch, and the turbine spins just like a jet engine does. These are more for novelty than anything else, but they are a bit of fun on your wrist.
To see more Perrelet watches, head to perrelet.com for their range. HBC Milestone Pty LTD is the local distributor in Australia.
Rebellion
Rebellion watches are not for the faint of heart or faint of wrist. They are big, bold, and out there, but this is part of their appeal. Their designs and brand DNA are rooted in motorsport, and this makes sense as their pieces are meant to be seen and are designed from high-performance materials.
We did a hands on review with the limited-edition C43 Valtteri Bottas last month, and it’s a very cool watch with a lot of wrist presence. But slightly on the pricier side at over $118,000 AUD, it may not be for everyone. Having seen this in person previously and tried it on, we were keen to check out some of the other limited-edition pieces, such as the red Re-Volt C43 Zhou Guanyu and the limited-edition piece that they have done for Ronaldinho.
Whilst in essence, these pieces are very much the same as the Valtteri Bottas limited edition, it’s always nice to see how Rebellion have done the carbon case in different colour ways. In this instance, the Zhou Guanyu has got the red blended through the case and dial, and the Ronaldinho is in the football star’s traditional Brazilian colours with his signature in yellow on the back sapphire crystal.
To see more Rebellion watches, head to rebellion-timepieces.com for their range. Hardy Brothers in Sydney and Brisbane are the local retailer for Rebellion in Australia. Head to Hardybrothers.com.au for local availability and pricing.
Speake-Marin
Speake-Marin is one of the younger independents around, founded in 2002 by a London-born watchmaker and then acquired in 2012 by female entrepreneur, Christelle Rosnoblet. With their own watchmaking facility in Le Cercle des Horlogers, their movements are finely finished to a high standard and as of today, have developed 8 unique movements for Speake-Marin pieces.
We did a hands on review of the Ripples Original in black back in October and were quietly impressed with it and the level of finishing on the case. It is one of those watches that can be dressed up or down, and the Ripples range, whilst one of the newer collections for the brand, is doing very well.
Speake-Marin have some very unique pieces, and great designs that set themselves apart from the mainstream, and these days, we feel this is something that many brands should be aspiring to. The way they design their dials, the layout and materials showcase a thirst to be different. This, combined with the love heart-shaped hour hands on their models does put them left of the mainstream, but in a good way!
To see more Speake-Marin watches, head to Speake-Marin.com for their range. Hardy Brothers in Sydney and Brisbane are the local retailer for Rebellion in Australia. Head to Hardybrothers.com.au for local availability and pricing.
So, this ends our coverage and spotlight on the independent brands showcased at the Sydney International Watch Fair: Artisans Of Time. It was a great few days, and a rare chance to go one on one with both the heads of the brands as well as the range of pieces in person. We’ll be waiting for the next fair eagerly and will let everyone know the dates next year once we do. Hope to see you there!
If you missed our previous articles, you can read Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE
