This January British watchmaker Peter Speake and Frederique Constant presented a co-designed openwork Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture, limited to 135 pieces.
Frederique Constant, in collaboration with Peter Speake (see a bit more about him below), recently introduced two new limited editions of the openwork Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture in the Manufacture collection. A 35-piece edition with grey anthracite DLC-treated steel case in December and a 135-piece edition a matte grey dial and a stainless steel case in January.
The now revealed model has a 42mm polished stainless steel case, with a fluted, round, onion-style crown and a grey nylon strap with matching overstitching.
The center is dedicated to the openwork FC-775 calibre in a rather understated white and matte anthracite grey colour combination – matte grey skeleton dial, luminescent printed indexes, white and polished hands with luminous treatment and a minimalist moonphase with luminous treatment. The only coloured accents are the tiny red triangles on the tip of the sub-dial hands.
|
Frederique Constant Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture Designed by Peter Speake
|
Perpetual calendars can track day of the week, date of the month while taking month lengths into account, leap years, and moon phases without human intervention, except the 3 times in every 400 years.
On the Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture the day and date are displayed along the horizontal axis of the dial, while the month is at 12 o’clock (indicated as two-letters abbreviations, dots and numbers – 5 for May and 9 for September). The moonphase at 6 o’clock is more of an animation than a typical moonphase indication. A twin luminous image of the moon revolves around showing the eternal cycle without giving information about the actual phases.
The month display can show the 29 February in the leap year – a discreet red dot appears in February when the year has 366 days; at all other times, the window remains white.
The see-through case back shows the openwork oscillating weight characteristic of the Maison’s Manufacture movements – loading the 38-hour power reserve. The movement bears the hallmarks of the Manufacture. Each component boasts its own lined finish; the gears of the perpetual calendar feature a circular satin finish and blued screws.
|
Frederique Constant Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture Designed by Peter Speake, movement side
|
Peter Speake was born in 1968 in Essex. During his school years he became interested in the beating of time to the extent that he went to study horology at the Hackney Technical College in London and later to WOSTEP (Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Programme) in Neuchâtel. Later he spent about 6 years with restoring antiques from Patek Philippe to Breguet at Somlo Antiques in London then building complications. From 1996–2000 he worked at Renauld & Papi in Le Locle, with haute horlogerie projects like creating tourbillons for Audemars Piguet. He founded his own brand in 2002, as Peter Speake-Marin – a part of the name came from his (now former) wife’s name, Daniela Marin.
Peter has contributed to models of Harry Winston, MB&F wit Maximilian Büsser and Maîtres du Temps (with Roger Dubuis, Daniel Roth and Christophe Claret) before completely devoting himself to his own branded creations in 2008.
He left the company in 2017 and founded the Naked Watchmaker with Daniela Marin, to deconstruct and photograph interesting and complex timepieces (like an original 200 year old Breguet Tourbillon pocket watch) for educational purposes. That time he created with Frederique Constant the Naked Watchmaker x Frederique Constant Slimline Perpetual Calendar Manufacture in a limited edition of 99 pieces.
In 2022 he started PS Horology to restore, design and develop watches.
Photo credits: Frederique Constant
All registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
All rights reserved.
