Golden Charm - A Speake-Marin Icon in Gold

It saddens me that Peter Speake-Marin no longer is associated with the brand he founded in 2002.

With his background in antique restoration and starting his early years in Piccadilly, Speake-Marin designed the now recognisable and iconic Piccadilly case, with distinctive screwed lug and pleated crown. The Speake-Marin of early years came in either the 38mm or the 42mm case. Featured here is the 38mm example which actually fits in pretty nicely for me. And if I am not mistaken, the range called Resilience only came in later.

Due to the case design, and in particular the lugs, the 38mm actually wears like a 40mm. I do have one of the Resilience in a steel case with a Grand Feu Enamel dial but some also come in gold cases as in this case - a solid rose gold case with a rose gold dial.

The signature case - the Piccadilly and the signature lugs. Each Resilience comes with an anti-reflective coated Crystal on the front and case back too.

But the beauty of this piece is in the centre engraving which is hand done.

Hand engraved Guilloché dial - the number of hours put into this gorgeous beauty is unimaginable.

A close up of the centrepiece.

The sheen of the Guilloché dial in pink gold.

The flame-blued steel hands are particularly well made and classic Speake-Marin "Foundation" style central hours and minutes.

A nice brushed dial on the inside.

The timepieces comes with an automatic winding modified ETA2824 movement. What has been changed in the Calibre FW2012? Well, the bridges, gear train, setting lever spring, main plate and rotor wheel has been either replaced or re-designed and they are all hand polished prior to encasing.

The winding rotor features the Speake-Marin signature motif - the watchmaker's topping tool.

The modified movement also features a solid construction with a large balance for precise timekeeping.

The Calibre FW2012 comes with a 42 hours power reserve, 26 jewels and a balance frequency of 28,800 vph. The rotor is hand polished and the quality is excellent!

Totally, a nice package

The rose gold case and Guilloché rose gold dial coupled with the blued steel hands makes the Speake-Marin a very attractive proposition. Peter makes some awesome timepieces which I have covered before and I have to say my favourite being the Magister Tourbillon. Simple complication.

Another Year End Get-Together - Xi Yan Shaw

It is the year ending get-together again and this time around, we hosted it at Xi Yan Shaw - the casual dining restaurant of their private dining sister restaurant in Craig Road. And the theme? Grand Seiko or any Seiko as well as any purchase in 2014.

Xi Yan Shaw is a spin off of the successful Xi Yan Private dining featuring Hong Kong Celebrity Chef Jacky Yu. The restaurant at Shaw Centre is located on the 3rd level and spacious enough to host probably 50-60 pax.

Unlike in the private dining restaurant, this is an open concept casual dining place.

The theme was around Grand Seiko, Seiko and purchases for 2014 so I brought these - my Grand Seiko SBGM003 and my purchase for 2014 being the De Bethune DB9. What about the Parmigiani? Well another friend had recently acquired a similar piece and I promised to let him do a comparison.

6.30pm was when the folks started strolling in and by 6.45pm, quite a group had already assembled.

And by 7pm?

Then the food started rolling in… First up the Salivating Chicken. As I have told many friends, prior to this dish, I never liked century egg - this dish changed it all. Depending on how hot you want it, they can increase the hotness of the dish. Take a bite at the chili padi if you like.

Pork patty with salted fish and water chestnut. Pan fried just nice and the salted fish not over-powering. Sorry I had missed the photo of the radish pizza in XO sauce. Busy mingling.

Deep fried shrimp paste fish fillet with pomelo salad - another winning dish for me. The fish fillet was well fried and still soft on the inside. But actually could not recall the shrimp paste taste. But that is actually a plus for me. To return and try it again another day. But the pomelo sauce complemented the fish well.

This is perhaps the most sinful dish of the night - Sake Dong Po pork with mei cai (seasoned vegetables). The pork is braised till soft to the bite and the mei cai is not the salty type - rather it is slightly sweet. Perfect with a bowl of rice or porridge. So good was the pork I missed taking picture of the next dish - the Yunnan Ham Niang Dou Fu in special broth. This is another must-have dish when visiting Xi Yan Shaw.

More dishes like the Kai Lan with Crispy Olive Leaves, Black truffles pasta with roast chicken - but by then, I was fully into the food. No pix to show for. Except for the last dish - the black truffles fried rice.

And how good was the food? Well everyone was tucking in. You sneeze you lose. You come late… sorry!

And very soon, it was time to display the timepieces for the evening. Seen here are Prof Harry Tan and Sean Wai - custodians of the timepieces on show.

On the left table, Grand Seikos and Seikos on display. And on the right, 2014 purchases.

The Grand Seikos and Seikos are an interesting lot - many anniversary pieces on display. Take a look at the top row. The GS SBMG003 and the various variants including two blue dial Limited Editions. Bottom right features two LE Tunas and one LE Monster, all anniversary pieces. And the bottom left, the LE Enamel dial Seiko Anniversary piece.

And now to the purchases of 2014 - one De Bethune, 2 Parmigianis, one Speake Marin, two MoVas (Bronze Diver and the T2 Tourbillon), one AP Royal Oak ultra-thin, one Jurgensen and JLC, Swatch Sistem 51 and Rolex GMT II make up the rest. No prize for guessing who brought the IWC pocket watch along. And then there is the Sony smart watch 3.

And very year end GTG, we have a special treat. Harry brought the fruit cake baked by Suzanne. Nicely made and delicious too.

Another nice GTG to round off the year. Thanks guys for showing up early! CNY coming up next!